


light up like a supernova

by graveltotempo



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anti-Hero, Betrayal, Brainwashed Tony Stark, Brainwashing, Broken Team Dynamics, But Dark, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Civil War Team Iron Man, Dark Tony Stark, Except its a matter of perspective really, F/M, Gamora Lives (Marvel), Hurt Nebula (Marvel), Hurt Tony Stark, Kidnapped Tony Stark, Loss of Trust, Mental Instability, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Not evil, Obsessive Behavior, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Betrayal, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Psychological Torture, Sentient Infinity Stones (Marvel), Stockholm Syndrome, Technopath tony stark, Technopathy, Temporary Character Death, Therefore, Tony Stark Acting as Harley Keener's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark is Vision's Father, Tony Stark is the Soul Stone, Torture, Unreliable Narrator, Villain Tony Stark, at some points not even thorbruce friendly, in the Avengers, kind of, not team Cap friendly, not wanda maximoff friendly, thanos reminds tony of those who wronged him, things happen when you lose your son, villain origin story, who decides if youre one or the other?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 72,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26644585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graveltotempo/pseuds/graveltotempo
Summary: They lost on Titan.And then Thanos kidnapped Earth's best defender.or: Thanos wants to take this human, this man of iron, the man who made him bleed, and mould him into the perfect companion. Tony? Tony just wants his family back.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Harley Keener & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Loki & Nebula (Marvel) & Tony Stark, Loki & Tony Stark, Nebula & Tony Stark, Past Tony Stark/Stephen Strange, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Stephen Strange, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers Team, Tony Stark & Stephen Strange, Tony Stark & Thanos, Tony Stark & Thor, Tony Stark & Vision
Comments: 168
Kudos: 685





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [You Should've Gone For the Head](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14831516) by [stvrk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stvrk/pseuds/stvrk). 
  * Inspired by [ACDC](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24978409) by [YunaYamiMouto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/YunaYamiMouto/pseuds/YunaYamiMouto). 



> timeline is different:  
> in my fic thanos gets on Titan following Maw's death BEFORE he meets the Asgardians, which means he doesn't have the space stone  
> He does sacrifice Gamora, but she doesn't die and Thanos doesn't get the soul stone - thanos does Not Know she's alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanos takes Tony and Nebula with him

**Chapter I**

14.000.605.

“You have my respect, Stark.”

14.000.605 different choices, different futures and they all ended up with half of humanity made of dust and/or reality and the multiverse collapsing on itself.

14.000.605 different times and ways he died - which, when you thought about Dormammu wasn’t that much; but it was still too much.

“When I’m done, half of humanity will still be alive.”

Observing the future was not quite like watching television. To observe the future, one must _be_ in the future, they must live it.

That meant that while Stephen was able to observe the majority of what happened, he was also limited to what _he_ was living. He could not see what happened to everyone else, he couldn’t see who died and didn’t die, but he could see this.

“I hope they remember you.”

But one thing did see all. One thing was aware of everything that happened to life itself in every single one of futures he saw, and it had made it’s choice - just as he chose _him_ before, it was choosing someone now. Someone who couldn’t die.

Thanos raised his hand, making a fist.

Every time - save, perhaps, the first 12 times - Tony Stark was the last one standing. Tony Stark was the biggest chance, the last one to stand between Earth’s annihilation and the Mad Titan.

The two stones in the gauntlet shone brightly.

“Stop,” he managed to say, trying to lift himself off the ground he was laying on. “Spare his life… and I’ll give you the stone.”

He could feel Tony’s shocked eyes on him, confusion, pain and anger burning behind those dark irids.

He understood, of course. The stones were the things standing between Thanos and him quickly finishing his ‘purpose’. To someone who hadn’t seen the future, sparing one life by doing something that basically condemned half of humanity was not a very smart move, not even counting his words from before.

[ _But you have to understand... if it comes to saving you or the kid or the Time Stone... I will not hesitate to let either of you die._ ]

“No tricks,” demanded Thanos, the Reality and Power stone now pointed in his direction, eyes suspicious as they looked at him.

“Don’t,” gasped Tony, and Stephen couldn’t meet his eyes.

He knew what he was doing was right, as he summoned the Time stone from the star he hid it in, as he felt the partly sentient stone shine brighter for a second, and let it fly back towards Thanos. 

It didn’t make it easier.

Thanos’ gauntlet almost shook when the green stone was placed, and he clenched his fist, energy coursing through the artefact and his body.

“Four more to-” he started, stopping abruptly as a red and blue figure swung towards the gauntlet, intent on taking it off him. But it never managed, a huge purple fist grabbing him mid flight and squeezing him in it, hard enough to hurt.

The Spider-Man boy.

“ _Peter_!” gasped Tony, immediately trying to stand back up again, despite the obvious pain he was in. “Let him go!”

“You’re brave,” said Thanos, half watching Tony trying to drag himself upright and mostly observing the grunting masked boy in his grasp. “But also very stupid, insect. Are you so willing to die?”

He squeezed a little harder and Peter let out a pained cry, desperately trying to get out of the hold.

Stephen had seen Peter die more than a million times, but it did not make it any easier. 

“Let him go, let him _go_!” shouted Tony, and despite his pained breathing he managed to stand back up, shaking as he did. “Don’t kill him, you have the stone! Just leave him-”

“He must be dear to you, Stark,” said Thanos, a thoughtful gaze on his face that made all of Stephen’s blood freeze. He knew what was coming, of course, and hoped this was one of the few times one of the Guardians managed to stand up and distract Thanos long enough for them to save Peter. For them to -

“Very well. I will let him live too,” said Thanos, offering the gauntlet hand. “If you agree to come with me.”

Tony didn’t even pause, didn’t even think. “Yes. Yes, just d-don’t kill him. Let him go.”

“Mr Stark, don’t-” tried Peter, breathing harshly.

“You’ll come with me?” asked Thanos, observing him very carefully. The look in his eyes made every single hair on Stephen’s body stand up.

“Stark-” he started, but the man was approaching Thanos, decided, a hand on the now cauterized stab wound.

“I’ll come with you, _willingly_ , if you let him go,” he repeated, voice steadier and eyes fixed on the teen rather than the titan.

Thanos smiled at this, before throwing Peter away from him and pointing the gauntlet at him.

“What-” said Tony, alarmed, but the red light of the reality stone didn’t burn him or harm him, other than encasing him in stone.

The titan offered the hand with the gauntlet again. “I gave you my word I wouldn’t hurt him. I’m making sure it won’t happen even accidentally.”

“Mr Stark! Stop!”

Tony rolled his shoulders, before slowly putting a hand on Thanos’ gauntlet, ignoring Peter’s cries. He looked up at the purple being in front of him with a bravery he didn’t possess anymore - Stephen could relate. “And you’ll let him go the moment we’re gone?”

“Don’t do it! Don’t leave with him!”

“No harm from me or my people shall befall your family, Stark.” vowed the titan, the gauntlet engulfing Tony’s hand completely. “This I can promise you.”

“Mr Stark, _please_.”

“Ve-very well,” agreed Tony, moving along with Thanos as the man reached out for a still unconscious Nebula.

“Mr Stark! Mr- _Dad!_ ” shouted Peter, and even at that distance, Stephen could see the shorter man shake slightly at Peter’s words.

He paused and turned his eyes on the teen, a quivering smile on his face, but not a single tear spilling on his cheeks. “Of all the times to stop calling me ‘ _Mr Stark_ ’,” he teased, shaking his head slightly.

“Please Mr Stark, don’t go with him. _Please_ , dad. Please don’t leave me,” begged Peter, tears flowing down his eyes.

Tony’s shakes became more pronounced, but his eyes didn’t betray any change of mind.

Thanos allowed the man a moment to compose, a… sympathetic? expression on his face as Tony spoke again. “I love you, Pete. Remember that. Take care of yourself and Harley for me, all right, kiddo?” 

Peter cried louder, forming no words and Tony closed his eyes once before turning to Stephen. “Make sure he gets home safe. Keep an eye on him for me. Vow me that.” 

“Stark,” he started saying, but the expression on the engineer’s face was one lick away from outright begging. He nodded. “I vow. On Vishanti and… Tesla.”

A small smile formed on Tony’s lips, as a tear fell down his cheek.

With that he turned around, ignoring the screams from Peter as Thanos, Nebula and Tony were then beamed up by a spaceship that the rest of them hadn’t noticed up to then.

“Dad! _Dad_!” cried out Peter, the rock he had been trapped in disappearing just as the beam pulled them up and the spaceship immediately started flying away. “No!”

Stephen just closed his eyes as Peter rushed to the spot where they had been beamed up from, letting out such a pained cry, Mantis and Quill both started awake.

The bug-girl looked at the boy, tears forming in her own eyes as she watched him wail and punch the ground.

“Did we- did we just lose?” whispered Quill, watching in shock as Rocket and Groot also started to wake.

Somehow over his own cries, Peter heard him, turning to look at him with such hatred - his mask was off now - that Stephen moved back up on his feet, intercepting his path as he stepped towards Quill.

“Peter-”

“It’s his fault!” shouted the teen, trying to sidestep Stephen and then growling in anger when magical binds were placed on him. “He’s the reason Mr Stark is gone, it’s his fault!”

Quill flinched slightly, then glared at Peter. “Listen kid-”

“I almost had the gauntlet!” shouted the younger one, “I had him, me and Mr Stark almost had it and then you couldn’t keep your cool for a fucking minute-”

“I _dare you_ to manage to stay level headed as the person you hate the most in the world admits to basically having murdered the most important person in your life!” shouted back Quill. “He killed her, okay! He _murdered_ Gamora!”

“He took Mr Stark!”

“And _you_ have a chance of getting him back!” roared Quill, loud enough that Peter actually shut up, breathing hard, eyes brimming with anger and tears but mouth shut. “You can get him back! But I don’t know if I can, cause he went to Vormir for the Soul Stone with Gamora and came back in mourning _without Gamora_.”

Quill squeezed his eyes shut, hands fisted at his sides, while the rest of the Guardians looked down at their feet in sorrow.

Stephen took a deep breath and turned back to the kid in front of him. “Right now, I need to get you back to Earth.” The brunet looked even angrier at that, and Stephen shushed him with a raised finger. “I know. You want to get Stark back, but we can’t do that here without a spaceship or the materials necessary to fix the… Guardians’ spaceship. And we know for a fact that Thanos _will_ come to Earth and try to get the stone from Vision. We need to get everyone ready for the fight.”

“But Mr Stark,” started Peter, brows furrowed as he considered the sorcerers' words. He looked back at him, expression so broken and pained that Stephen, notorious ‘ew children’ man actually ached for him. “What if Thanos kills him before he gets to Earth? What if-”

“Stark survived in a cave in Afghanistan for three months,” reminded him Stephen, trying to infused as much certainty in those words as he could. “He will not die there.”

Peter stared at him in the eye for a couple more seconds, searching for any shadow of doubt and ending up with none. Then he nodded, repeating, “Dad will not die.”

Stephen pulled out his sling ring, starting to open up a portal to Earth, ignoring the voice lingering in his mind.

_There are things that are worse than death._

* * *

Time in space was complicated.

There weren’t hours or minutes or days or weeks. There was no sun rising or setting on the ship; just darkness with pools of light every time he turned to look at one of the window of the spaceship.

He had been taken to a surprisingly comfortable room and left there since he had been taken from Titan. The room had a bed, and pillows and blankets and rugs and absolutely nothing useful in it. No tech, alien or other ways.

Thanos _had_ said he knew him, after all. Figures out that the first person who actually _didn’t_ underestimate him was the evil guy who didn’t simply want _him_ dead but also half of the Universe too.

Truth was, Tony Stark was afraid.

Afraid of space, afraid of what was going to happen and afraid of Thanos.

Ever since the Chitauri invasion, he had been afraid, and now, facing his fear was not having the calming effects it was supposed to have. 

With his nanotech suit reduced to too many broken parts to fully form against him again, the only thing stopping him from dying was the stale air in the Sanctuary II and Thanos’ mercy.

And he wasn’t inclined to believe the titan was going to keep him alive for long. In fact, he wasn’t even quite sure what Thanos actually _wanted_ from him.

Usually, when people kidnapped him, they wanted one of two things: money or weapons.

Thanos did not seem the kind of person interested in _either_ of that. What was an evil or smart guy like him going to do with Tony’s billions in _space_? And weapons? When he had the infinity stones in his gauntlet? 

Wanda Maximoff’s power came from _one_ of the infinity stones, and look how much destruction she could cause. Thanos had _three_.

His door was not locked, but there were two of his lackeys were standing guard and were armed. He could risk his life by trying to escape, but he doubted his skills against them when he didn’t have his suit back to proper levels yet. Despite what many thought, Tony was _not_ suicidal. Fully willing to lay down his life for his home and his people, sure. For no reason? He liked living, and he needed to live if he wanted to go back to Harley and Pe-

So he bid his time instead, trying to appear meeker than he actually was, accepting the food he was offered and pretending to sleep - and actually passing out - on the shockingly comfortable bed in the room. 

He did not shower, feeling a panic attack creeping at the mere thought of standing naked with _water_ running down his face in _space_ with _Thanos_ on the same ship, but did clean himself with a towel and warm water, and changed into the clothing he was provided with - some material that looked like leather but felt like silk and smelled of nothing woven into trousers and a shirt jacket.

He needed to somehow find out about the ship; if he manage to figure out the alien tech they were using, he could hack it or steal parts for his suit or even both. He was an engineer, and space or not, he destroyed and remade things for a living. He could do this.

+++

It took what his internal clock insisted was eight more days before something changed from his routine of laying on the bed, circling the room trying to find anything of use and eating.

One of Thanos’ lackeys, a weird female presenting looking being with red skin and way too many eyes, walked inside, every eye creepily fixed on him. “Thanos wishes to sup with you,” she said, opening her mouth to show a single tooth in what Tony could only assume was a veiled threat or a smile. 

He wasn’t quite sure which he preferred, as his heart started hammering in his chest. He had not exactly forgotten that he was under the titan’s control, but he had pushed the thought aside, willing to believe that Thanos had somewhat forgotten about him.

Of course life wasn’t that easy for him.

“I don’t want to,” he answered, crossing his arms on his chest, trying to gauge her next reaction.

There was of course the chance of torture, like back in the Ten Rings, but at least that would help him figure out what they wanted with him.

The weird spider - _no_ , not spider, more like a scorpion or scallop - looking lady-presenting person did not waver. “Thanos wishes to sup with you,” she repeated, opening the door in front of him, one of her free arms - because she had three of them, oh god - still holding onto the gun. 

“Are you like one of those teddy bears that can only say one sentence at a time?”

Every eye blinked at the same time, before she came to stand behind him and - surprisingly gently - pushed him out of the door. Part of Tony wanted to snark and pushback and make it harder for them, but the other part knew he might not get another chance to study the rest of the ship.

“So, does he normally sup with his prisoners or am I just that special?” he questioned, eyes cataloguing every part of the ship he could see as he mentally counted where each step was taking him. “Who _is_ making this supper he wants to share with me? Does he have kidnapped chefs on board of this thing?”

The lackeys did not threaten him, didn’t push him, didn’t scowl, didn’t even pull out a gag. It was like they simply couldn’t hear any of Tony’s words. It was grating, especially since he was actually _trying_ to be an ass. 

“Is he cooking it himself? Is Thanos a good cook? Cause to be honest-”

A ear piercing scream sounded as they turned yet another corner and Tony actually stopped walking, fear clawing at his chest.

God, had Thanos lied after all? Had he grabbed Peter? Or Strange? Who was scream-

He had a second in which he was actually _happy_ that it was neither Peter or Stephen being stabbed and broken in front of him, before he realised who it was.

He vaguely recalled her as one of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the one who had confirmed the Gamora girl’s death to Quill. He wasn’t sure what her name was, but she was, theoretically, on the good anti-Thanos side.

“Let her go!” he shouted moving towards the glass wall between them and the blue cyborg. “Hey!”

He made to punch at the glass, and immediately one of the bug lady’s hands was on his wrist, tight and unmovable. “She disobayed father, and now will suffer.” Her single rodent sized tooth was particularly distracting, but Tony was almost sure she was smirking like what she was seeing was pleasing her. “Gamora got what she deserved, and now so will she.”

The cyborg let another scream as the bones - did aliens have bones? Thor did, in theory - in her non metallic arm were crushed by one of her torturers. Tony cringed back at the sound, and stumbled when bug-alien started walking again, hand clasped on his own wrist.

A threat if he had ever seen one.

He wanted to help her, to get those other aliens off of her, but how could he when he was being marched towards Thanos and he had no idea of how to get out of there?

He had to bid his time, figure out what Thanos wanted with him and then use that to thwart his plans and get the fuck back home one way or another.

The bug alien let go of his wrist just as they walked inside a small and grim looking chamber. To be honest, everywhere he had walked in the ship looked grimy and somewhat… ugly, which contrasted so very much with the room/cell he had been put in. Was it an alien culture thing? Comfort for their prisoners? And if so, why was the cyborg’s cell like that? Or was it just -

“Stark. You are here,” came Thanos’ voice, and Tony did his best not to flinch or panic at the sound of the titan’s voice.

He was sitting at one end of a 8 people table, two plates of food not dissimilar from what Tony had been receiving sitting in front of him. His golden gauntlet was on his arm still, and Tony was half relieved and half terrified to see the three stones shining brightly on it. Relieved because he still had only three stones; terrified because he already had _three_ stones.

Instead of dwelling on his anxiety he stayed exactly where he was, observing around the room and again, finding nothing of interest laying around. Thanos was staring at him as he looked around, his heavy stare giving him the feeling of a wet sock on a foot.

“What do you want from me?” he finally asked, keeping his arms relaxed at his sides - a lesson learnt from becoming the CEO of the largest weapons manufacturing company at just 21 years of age. Never let them see how affected you are by them.

Thanos leant over the table and pulled out the chair on his left. “I thought I made myself clear to Nahiri. Supper.”

He considered for a moment simply refusing the offer and trying to walk away. Thanos had yet to use any violence on him since the battle on Titan, but he had just seen the cyborg being tortured mere moments ago. Was that a coincidence or had it been intentional? Was Thanos trying to psych him out by showing what _could_ happen to him if he didn’t behave?

In the end, he slowly moved towards the table and, very obviously, sat on the chair that Thanos had not pulled out for him. The titan did not even blink at the obvious slight, pulling the tray he hadn’t been eating from in front of Tony.

The human ignored how everything in him was shouting at him to get away from the purple grape, warily looking at the food placed in front of him. “How do I know it wasn’t poisoned?”

Thanos had the _gall_ of appearing offended at the question. “Why would I go through the trouble of putting you in such a fine room and give you garments and nourishment everyday only to kill you via poison now?”

 _Why do all of that at all_?, wanted to ask Tony, but he bit down on his tongue, ripping a piece of the salad with one of the strange forks that had been placed on the tray. “‘Fine room’ is a funny way of saying cell.” He said instead, biting down on the salad.

“Cell?” asked Thanos amused. “None of the cells on the ship look anything like that,” he pointed out, which seemed to point to Tony’s earlier conjecture that he had purposefully been walked past the cyborg girl’s cell. “And isn’t the point of a cell being _locked_ inside it? You aren’t locked in.”

Tony gave him an incredulous look, just shy of a glare. “You put two guards in front of it?”

“For your protection,” informed him the titan, ripping a piece of what looked like bread. “You are free to walk around the ship as you please.”

That. Uh?

He stared at Thanos, trying to figure out the meaning of those words. Was it a test? Was Thanos looking to see if Tony would try and escape? What was he trying to prove?

Because Tony would 100% try to escape, and if Thanos knew Tony as well as he said he did - and wasn’t that an absolutely horrifying thought - he should know that. Was he looking for an excuse to punish and hurt him? And if so, _why_ did he need an excuse?

Perhaps he was going to trade Tony’s life for Vision’s mind stone once they got to Earth?

But it wouldn’t work, unlike Stephen, Rogers was a strategist. He would never put the life of one person above the good of the peopl- well, unless that person was Bucky Barnes, of course. But he and Tony weren’t friends anymore, so ~~Ste~~ Rogers had no reason to allow Vision to sacrifice himself for _Tony_. 

The problem was that Thanos knew Tony but, other than what his PTSD and nightmares told him, Tony had no idea who Thanos was. 

He needed someone who did know and/or understood him. He needed an ally. He needed -

“The cyborg. Why can’t _she_ be my security detail?” he asked, keeping his eyes on him and trying to catalogue any change in his expression. 

Thanos didn’t even hide his amusement at the question. “Nebula? No, my daughter will not be allowed out of her cell. She betrayed me, and I can no longer trust her.” His expression somehow gentled. “You know a lot about betrayals, don’t you, Stark?”

Tony didn’t allow himself any hint of panic at _how closely_ Thanos had been watching him - who did he mean? Obadiah? Natasha? Rogers and the Avengers? - holding the cutlery as tight as possible, letting the pain ground him.

“Torture is not the way of making her any more inclined to trust you,” he told him, knowing it would achieve nothing.

The titan surprised him once more by simply observing Tony thoughtfully. “You forgive and trust very easily, don’t you?”

This time Tony did flinch, reminded of the words Natasha had spoken to him after he had saved Maria Hill and various SHIELD agents following the fall of SHIELDRA.

[ _“You trust and forgive too easily, Stark,” said Natasha, watching as Tony finished his email to Pepper regarding the very useless Security division being opened in Stark Industries._

_Tony barely suppressed his glare at her. He understood that lines were compromised and they were afraid of HYDRA figuring out what was going to happen but it still rankled that so many agents had been burned simply because Tony hadn’t known quickly enough and cleaned up the mess and encrypted data from the web. “I can’t let them die.”_

_“But you also don’t need to offer them jobs at Stark Industries,” pointed out the red head, arms crossed on her chest. “SHIELD used me to infiltrate you before, and now you are basically allowing them free reign in your company. It seems unwise.”_

_“Maybe,” he agreed because despite what he thought of the whole Natalie Rushman thing now, she was right. “But if I can help them reach a semblance of normalcy… then that’s what I’ll do.”_

_“We’re spies first, Stark. Don’t forget that and trust us too much. You tend to do that a lot.”_ ]

Instead he let some of his anger through and glared at Thanos. “I will not forgive _you_ , if that’s what you think will happen.”

“I will stop the correcting of Nebula’s behaviour,” said Thanos, not even listening to Tony. “And you’ll continue to join me for supper.”

 _This is cruel and unusual punishment,_ thought Tony _._ Of course he did _not_ believe Thanos would keep his word, but at the very least he could try. In the off chance he could save this Nebula pain and make her an ally, he needed to agree.

“I’ll do it,” he finally said, and Thanos nodded, like he expected as much. 

“Nahiri,” he called, and the bug lady from before walked back into the room. “Tell Zerjati and Luima to stop Nebula’s correction.”

That was… _faster_ than Tony had expected.

Thanos could have simply ordered Tony to continue coming to supper with him. It didn’t make sense for him to bargain for Tony coming there, not when there was even an infinitesimally small chance Tony would refuse; after all he had gotten Tony to join him now without even using violence.

The brunet stood up abruptly, his chair scraping slightly on the floor. Thanos did not even flinch, observing him as he continued his meal.

“I want to check,” he blurted out, grabbing his tray. “That you’re keeping your word.”

The titan simply tilted his head to the side in acquiescence, unperturbed. “You’ll find, Stark, that I always keep my word. You’re free to go.”

His heart was screaming at him to _run_ , but his brain kept pointing out how easy everything was. What did he _want_? When was the other shoe going to drop? What was he planning, why was he basically treating Tony like a guest and not someone who he had forced on his ship?

 _Except he didn’t_ force _Tony on his ship. He had been willing to leave Tony on Titan with Strange, up until Pe-_

The engineer refused to finish that thought, instead turning around on his heels - without giving Thanos his back - and walking as fast as he could without running towards where Nebula’s glass cage was.

57 steps later he was back in the corridor he had walked past earlier, this time without Nahiri and those other guards around. 

Nebula was laying on the ground, breathing heavily, but her heard turned towards him when he came to a stop in front of her cell. She wasn’t bleeding in any way he could see outwardly, but she was definitely in pain, marks and various scratches all over her metal and non parts.

She squinted, clearly confused at seeing him in front of her. “Stark,” she spoke, voice raw from the earlier screaming.

Tony placed his tray on the ground and also sat down in front of the glass. “Does _every_ alien know my name?”

Nebula didn’t blink. “You’re the terran who managed to destroy the Chitauri mothership with one single blow. Allies and enemies of Thanos alike know you.”

“Luck, honestly, it wasn’t even my nuke,” he started, then shook his head, because it didn’t matter. The WSC might have fired the nuke with the intention of destroying Manhattan but Tony was the one who redirected it. 

“And which one are you?” he asked her instead, eyeing her thoughtfully.

The growl she let out was _very_ animalistic. “Would I be in _here_ if I was on his side?” she demanded. “After he killed my sister?”

 _The Gamora chick,_ informed him his brain, and Tony put up his hand. “Look, Neytiri, the lines are blurred here. I’m the one who destroyed one of Thanos’ army and for some reason he has me in a suite and he _asks_ me to supper in exchange of you not being tortured when he could easily demand it, so-”

Nebula stared at him in confusion. “Why would you agree to supper with him for me? You don’t know me.”

“I don’t have to know you to know that you don’t deserve to be tortured,” he said sharp. When her expression went even more confused, he quickly changed the subject. “Do you… know what he wants from me?”

The cyborg alien shook her head. “I am not sure. I am aware that he is fascinated by you: a Terran able to destroy his battleship just like that?”

“Again, not my nuke,” he sighed. Nebula shrugged, like it didn’t matter. Which… well. It didn’t.

And wasn’t it a horrifying thought that the universe’s most frightening serial killer/mass murderer - _welcome Tony Stark, America’s most famous mass murderer_ \- was interested in him?

“Do you have any ideas as to what he wants?” he tried, sighing again when Nebula simply shook her head. The he noticed her eyes on the tray in his hands and decided that for now he should put aside the Thanos problem.

Instead he spotted the food window and turned a small smile to Nebula.

“Would you like some food?”


	2. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony strikes a deal with Thanos, and Thanos keeps his promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have almost completely finished writing the fic (well, ive written 6 chapters so far), so the schedule for posting will be mondays and fridays so yay?
> 
> im gonna tag this as both past pepperony (canon) and past ironstrange (precanon) since they had the highest votes. bear in mind that we dont really /see/ pepper in the fic till the end. vote here please, u have till friday and then i will choose the final endgame ship
> 
> also me, making up uses for the infinity stones? u bet ur ass i am

**Chapter II**

“All right,” said Tony out of nowhere, all but slamming his hands on the table as he turned his eyes to Thanos. “ _Why_ am I here? What do you want from me? And don’t say ‘supper’.”

He knew it was a dangerously bold move on his part, but he was quite sick of being a sitting duck.

For the past three suppers - days? from his calculations so far he was receiving a light meal when he woke up in the morning and another one hours later, before he went to sleep - he had sat at the same table as the titan and done absolutely nothing but eat.

There had been a few stilted attempts at conversation with the titan that hadn’t really gone anywhere interesting. He had learnt a lot about Thanos’ _children_ (if you could call people whom you stole after destroying their planets your children) and absolutely nothing of use if he wanted to get off the spaceship and back on Earth.

Even when Tony momentarily lost his temper and said something sarcastic that would have 100% gotten him a beating from any of his other kidnappers, Thanos didn’t appear annoyed. Vaguely amused at best, like he found Tony _funny_. It was creeping him out.

Nebula had absolutely nothing to give him. 

Thanos and his minions did feed her, but nothing similar to what Tony received on his ‘suppers’, so he had made the habit of leaving some of his food on his tray and then delivering it to the cyborg alien every day after seeing Thanos.

She didn’t exactly warm up to him, but she accepted the food gratefully nevertheless. But she had nothing to offer him about Thanos’ strange behaviour towards him, telling him that the only person he had treated somehow like him was Gamora; with the difference, of course, that he had raised her from a child and then trained her in combat, neither of which applied to Tony himself.

So he had no other option than to try and force the truth out of the titan himself.

Thanos just stared at him, taking a gulp of water before speaking. “I see you as my equal, Stark.”

Oh, this was even more terrifying than Nebula’s ‘ _he finds you fascinating_ ’.

“Excuse me?” he let out, hands shaking slightly.

“You remind me of myself,” continued the purple being, placidly. “Cursed with knowledge and ready to do anything to defend yours and your planet from anything and anyone you perceive as a threat. Betrayed by those you believed your friends and your family.”

Tony shivered, feeling cold hair hitting his face, and blinked.

Instead of the ship, it was as if he was standing in a cold tundra - 

“Lied by the one you called your leader and then left to die there,” Thanos’ voice felt like it was coming from somewhere far far away, and he felt a buzzing noise deep in his brain. All he could see however was the snow from outside the base, the phantom pain of a shield breaking his arc reactor and bruising his ribs. “Laying on the ground there… did you think you would survive? Did you think that that was it, that you would die there?”

The buzzing grew louder in his mind, like when you’re in your apartment and you can hear a bee or a mosquito before you saw it. It felt like it was trying to say something to him, but he couldn’t quite make the words. His chest ached, and his breathing was shallow.

“With your creation leaving you to chase after the witch who wanted nothing more than to put a bullet in your head,” the words were barely audible over the sound of Tony’s breathing and still sounded clear in his head, over the buzzing, “The child you brought along injured,” _Peter,_ his kid, almost crushed by the jet bridge, “your best friend paralysed,” _Rhodey._ Oh god, Rhodey. “the panther and the spy turning their backs on you… who’s left to save you, except yourself?”

Was he still in Siberia? Had no one found him yet? It was so cold and his chest hurt so hard. His suit was falling apart -

What? That wasn’t possible.

His suit was nanotech, it couldn’t -

He blinked hard and gasped, the table where he was eating coming back into view in front of him.

Thanos was watching him carefully, and Tony swallowed, nails pressing hard on the wood – was it wood? It looked like wood – of the table. “H-how,” he tried, his throat surprisingly dry, “How did you know that?”

The titan shrugged easily. “I’ve told you already, Stark. I _know_ you. I’ve watched you. You and I-”

“I’m nothing like you!” he hissed trying to stop the shaking of his fingers. It felt like something between a panic attack and a bad BARF session, and yet so incredibly real. But Thanos didn’t have the mind stone, so… how did he do it? If, he did it? 

“We’re two sides of the same coin, Stark,” informed him the other, still infuriatingly calm. “All we try to do is what is best for everyone else and we are pushed back by everyone.”

“ _Your_ solution is mass genocide! All I wanted was to get everyone working together and not kill people while doing that, we are nothing alike!”

Thanos expression was pained. “I’ve seen first hand what happened to Titan. Is it so wrong of me to try and help other planets before what happened to me to happen to them?”

Tony glared, “‘ _The safest hands are your own_ ’, is that what you think? You think you’re the only who knows what’s best?” Like ~~Obie~~ Stane and ~~Steve~~ Rogers.

“I do,” agreed the other, and the words were so surprising Tony actually paused for a second and stared at the arrogance being displayed. “I’ve told you, Stark, I am cursed with knowledge. And so are you. Wasn’t that what prompted you to create the robot? Ultron?”

_-People crying and screaming, a rock floating in the air, JARVIS, for you sir always, I once had strings now I’m free-_

“Ultron was _not_ my fault,” he said, trying to sound determined even as his voice shook slightly, “there was an inquest. It was an accident, and Bruce and Thor are also to blame. It wasn’t _my_ fault, I didn’t want to destroy the world. I wanted to save it and Ultron was not advanced enough to know the difference between saving the world and destroying it-”

“And where did he learn that?” Thanos’ voice was gentle, but it still felt like a slap to the face. “Even subconsciously you knew that the only way to save the world was by destroying some of it. And you passed those traits to your creation.”

“Stop,” whispered Tony, shaking his head slightly.

“Part of you knows it, Tony. Ultron wasn’t your fault, because Ultron was _not_ a mistake. You simply wanted to save the world and then _they_ blamed you for it. But you were right, weren’t you?” Tony shook his head, Charlie Spencer’s face appearing in his mind.

“I killed people,”

“And yet, had you been allowed to try again, Maw would not have been able to enter the atmosphere of Earth at all,” Tony squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore Thanos’ words. “Because you were right. You knew what was coming better than anyone else and yet they refused to put their trust in you. Your team betrayed you and focused on Ultron instead of the other you created. Pushed you away and blamed you for everything.”

“I had no right-”

“The only way to ensure life is with death, Stark. With great knowledge comes great responsibility,” told him Thanos. 

_When you can do the things that I can, but you don't… and then the bad things happen… they happen because of you._

“Can I go?” he asked, refusing to make eye contact with Thanos, refusing to let him farther into his head.

Because that was the curse of being a genius; nothing was ever forgotten, nothing was shoved aside. Everything he heard was analysed and considered in his mind, and the more he let Thanos speak to him the more leverage he was giving the Titan against him.

Thanos just nodded, still so oddly gentle. “Of course. You may go,”

Tony grabbed his tray as hard as he could focusing all of his energy in not making his hands shake.

Tony had _never_ wanted to destroy the world. Everything he had ever done was to protect it. He had _never_ in his life considered the idea of killing half of Earth to make sure they all survived. 

He didn’t make it a habit to kill people. Everytime he had killed someone it was because they had attacked him first and thus deserved it. Life was important to him.

_And why do you think Thanos is doing what he’s doing? To ensure life._

No, Thanos was wrong. They weren’t the same, what Tony had done, what Tony did, was different. Thanos had even quoted Stane and Rogers, he was clearly not that bright.

“Stark?” called Nebula’s voice and Tony’s head snapped back up. She was looking at him in worry, and only then did Tony realise he had been standing there for a while with the tray shaking in his hands, dammit.

He shook his head and opened her food window, placing the tray. “Here. Bon apetit.”

She watched him carefully as he sat down in front of her glass wall and then sat down basically across of him. “You do not look well, terran.” She glanced down at her food with a frown. “You have left a lot more than usual. Why?”

Tony ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head a little. “After the purple grape’s great speech about me and him being two sides of the same coin I kind of lost my appetite.”

“Two sides of the same coin?” repeated Nebula, taking a piece of the soup like food they had been given that day.

“He says that me and him are… alike. He says that we are both cursed with knowledge and are the only two who know how to save the world,” replied the brunet, looking down at his hands.

“Do _not_ believe him, Stark,” she immediately said, voice almost worried and eyes bright. “Do you hear me?”

Tony threw her a dirty look. “I know that he’s a liar, thank you very much. I am not just going to believe him.”

At this Nebula made a complicated expression. “He is not a liar,” she started, putting up a hand, irritated, when Tony made to say something. “He promised the sorcerer to spare your life and he did. He promised to let your child go if you went with him and he did. He promised to stop torturing me if you continued to attend supper with him and he did.” She shook her head, “Thanos does not break his promises. He manipulates, brainwashes and gets in your head in the most insidious ways, but he does not lie.”

It tracked with all that Tony had seen so far. He paused, turning to her, half hopeful half dreading her answer. “Does he… mind control people? Is he able to make you see things?”

Nebula eyed him with apprehension. “Not since he parted with the sceptre and the mind stone. He does not have any magical power of his. Why?”

So it had been a PTSD attack after all. Fucking Rogers, two years later and his presents from Siberia still showed themselves.

“Nothing,” he grumbled, shaking his head slightly.

Instead of continuing to eat, Nebula stared at him for a little more. “Stark, you have to be careful.”

“Uh?”

“You cannot let him inside your head,” she stressed. “He knows you, he has been watching you for years now, and knows exactly what he needs to do and say to get you under his thumb. Don’t let him.”

Tony wanted to deflect with a joke or a sarcastic comment until he saw Nebula’s face. There was a clear struggle at keeping it blank, but the worry was still present in her eyes. She might not be willing to say it, but she was… concerned for him.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. I’ll try,” he finally said, keeping eye contact until the alien nodded and looked away again.

+++

Tony had been thinking - which, had Pepper been there, would have probably worried her deeply.

What made Thanos dangerous was that he was convinced that what he was doing was correct, he was convinced that he was in the right. And as had history proven before, the most dangerous people were those who thought they were correct despite everyone else around them telling them they weren't.

Tony might not be the great manipulator Romanoff and Fury were but he had spent his childhood and adolescence in the media. ~~Obi~~ Stane had allowed the media to run wild with the accusations and their treatment of Tony, but when he stepped into a board meeting he was every inch the man his father had moulded him into.

Iron Man: yes, Tony Stark: not recommended? 

Time to show just how dangerous Tony Stark could be.

“You’re right,” he said, presenting a courage he wasn’t really feeling. Thanos looked like he would have raised an eyebrow had he had any, and the image of the bald grape with hair and brows was amusing enough to calm down his nerves slightly. “I would do anything to protect the Earth and their inhabitants.”

Thanos tilted his head to the side, looking down at him curiously. “Even after everything they’ve done to you? After all the lies on your name and all the betrayals?”

 _Don’t let him get into your head. Don’t let him manipulate you_.

“Yes,” he answered, keeping his poker face intact. “Because it’s my home, and I want my home safe.”

Thanos made a considering noise. “So… You want to rule the Earth? Under me?”

Tony actually snorted at that. “Absolutely no, way too much paperwork,” he steeled himself again. “I’ve been observing you, and I’ve noticed something. You, so far, have kept all of your promises. You have yet to lie to me.” 

It was a gamble, a dangerous gamble, but Tony had to try.

“I know you have a vision. You want the Universe to not collapse because of the carelessness and demand of man… or Titan. Alien?” Thanos did not answer, so Tony kept going. “I want to ask you to spare Earth. If _they_ end up falling and destroying themselves like Titan, then so be it. I want- I would like you to let Earth on it’s path. To not destroy it.”

Thanos’ stare was unnerving when it was fully focused on you. “You expect me to ignore my destiny and let Earth go down it’s own course? Why?”

“You are fair, according to N- my sources,” Tony stumbled on his words, afraid of implicating Nebula in his schemes. “And you know I would do anything for my planet. You asked me if the people who betrayed me deserve me doing all I can to save them: the answer is no.” Thanos appeared surprised and pleased by the answer, and Tony ignored the bile threatening to rise in his throat. “But there _are_ people who I still care about on Earth. My family. And you, as someone who does not pre-select those he will allow to live and those he will kill, could end up killing them. I wouldn’t be able to live with that.”

The titan let out a huff of breath. “And if you died?”

A shiver ran down Tony’s spine, but he kept his gaze even. “I’d rather you still didn’t destroy Earth if I died but I wouldn’t be able to stop you then, would I?”

Thanos leant forward, and Thanos squashed down his need to lean backwards, away from him. “What makes you think you are special enough for me to do that?”

Willing his heart to slow down, Tony also leant slightly forward. “I am here, after all, aren’t I?”

Surprisingly, Thanos laughed at that, the stones in the gauntlet also twinkling.

Tony kept himself still, unsure if that was good or bad for him.

Finally, Thanos turned to Tony again, and gave him a solemn nod. “Very well, Stark. I promise you that I will stop the army that has already been sent to Earth and will not destroy or half the planet.”

Tony inclined his head, stopping himself from giving a fist pump. Part of him still doubted his words - the idea that Thanos would not go on Earth just because of a promise seeming ridicolous - but everything Nebula told him and everything he had seen himself pointed out to Thanos hating betrayals, and taking promises seriously.

He could have taken the time stone and then killed Tony. He could have killed Peter and taken Tony. He could have kept torturing Nebula. But he didn’t.

It had to mean something, right?

* * *

Shuri was deep into calculations when Peter walked inside her lab, his backpack still on and Spider Man costume hidden away. “Hey,” 

“Hey, Shuri,” answered Peter, throwing the bag on the floor.

“Hey, Parker!” called another familiar voice, and Peter gave a small smile to the teen on one of Shuri’s screens. 

“Keener, what’s up? Are you back in Tennessee?”

A scowl passed on the boy’s face. “Mom said that a month was enough time to play operation on an android and that I can help just as well farther away from where the battle will take place.”

Peter could relate. When he had returned on Earth with Dr Strange, Aunt May had lost her shit. Apparently a video had gone viral of Iron Man and Spider Man following the space ship as it disappeared from Earth and she had been unable to get any form of explanation from Happy, Rhodey or Pepper about what was going on. It had taken a lot of tears and shouting matches for him to explain to her that he couldn’t simply stop the Spider Man act _now_ and that he needed to do his best to help Mr Stark return home.

Because of that, he had to cut out the night patrolling so that he could spend every day after school with Shuri in her lab and try to help her ‘hack’ into Vision’s mainframe.

Thankfully Dr Strange had managed to convince Mr Rhodey (their first interaction had been weird, Mr Rhodey had looked at him like he was a ghost) to contact Mr Captain America and the rest of the Ex-Vengers so that they could find/protect Vision from Thanos’ army, which had led to contact with Wakanda and a creation of a permanent (for now) portal between the New York Sanctum and the lab where Vision was being ‘operated’ on.

He tried to ignore the latter part of the sentence, ignore the fact that it had been already a month since the battle on Titan, the fact that they had had no word on Mr Stark and Thanos since then. Dr Strange had tried using his mystic powers to find anything, but had come empty handed. 

Well, mostly empty handed.

Because for two weeks now, a bunch of space ships had appeared just over Earth’s atmosphere. At the moment they were closer to Mars than they were to Earth but everyone knew what they were.

Thanos’ army.

Even Quill and the rest of his teammates had remained stranded on Earth, following the arrival of the spaceship. None of their ‘contacts’ were willing to risk ending up on Thanos’ radar while trying to free them from Earth.

“Found anything?” he asked Shuri and Harley, eyeing their calculations on one of the floating screens.

The genius shook her head, frustrated. “I think I have figured out a source of power that could, theoretically, sustain him even if we take the mind stone off of him but… he’s virtually unhackable,” she finally explained.

Peter knew how much it grated her to admit such a thing, and didn’t interrupt her. “The problem, right now, is that I’ve been raised with code written in a particular manner, with particular rules. Reading Dr Banner’s work, for me, is like I’m trying to understand Russian or Arabic letters while only knowing the English alphabet. Complicated, sure, but I can figure it out,” She flicked an hologram over, showing lines of code to Peter. “However Dr Stark… it’s like he _invented_ his own language when dealing with his own AI - which would make sense if he got annoyed with how easily people managed to get access to him. 

“He basically wrote the book on artificial intelligence, and the only other person who might be able to tell us what we’re doing is Dr Banner, since he was there. Other than that-” she continued, stopping when Steve Rogers and Wanda Maximoff walked inside, grim expressions on their faces. She straightened up immediately, looking worried. “What happened?”

“According to NASA a new ship has appeared,” informed the Captain. “And this one is not hanging out near Mars - it’s coming straight towards us and fast.”

Peter froze, turning wide eyes at the older man. “When you say towards us-”

“According to the calculations from Nasa, it’s coming straight towards Wakanda,” he admitted, shaking his head slightly.

Vision finally opened his eyes turning his eyes towards Wanda. “You-”

“No,” said the witch, red mist pooling around her fingers. Peter eyed her hands warily, but Vision didn’t pay them any attention.

“One life cannot be worth more than the rest of the Universe,” he told her, an argument he had had many times before. “The only way to make sure Thanos doesn’t get the stone is to destroy it.”

“We don’t trade lives, Vision,” said Steve, shaking his head. “I’ve told you that before. We aren’t letting you sacrifice yourself.”

“Thanos -”

“He might have beaten some of them on Titan, but there are more of us now. Whatever they bring us, we can dish it right back.” His voice was firm, sure.

Peter bit down his own thoughts about how Mr Stark was the best among of them and even _he_ had been bested, and shook his head. Instead he turned his eyes on the Captain. “We need to get Mr Stark back.”

“We’ll do our best,” agreed the other man.

Wanda eyed them both a little wary. “He could be de-”

“He is _not_ !” shouted Harley and Peter at the same time, with such vehemence that Wanda took a step back hands raised in defence. Harley glared at them for a second before going back to his calculations and Peter shook his head. “Mr Stark has survived much worse odds. It’s been just one month, and Thanos _knew his name_. He wouldn’t - not this easily.”

Mr Captain America nodded slowly, but before he could say anything else, the younger boy felt every hair on his neck stand to attention at once. He looked up at Mr Captain America, who seemed to have felt the same shift in air as he did.

“He’s here,” said Dr Strange, stepping out of a portal with two orange mandalas ready and just as quickly opening a new one. “Let’s go.”

The Captain took a step forward and frowned when he saw Peter putting his mask on. “Look kid, I don’t think -”

“I don’t care,” interrupted Peter, finishing suiting up. “I’m getting Mr Stark back.”

“I understand that you feel like-”

“You don’t understand _shit_ , okay? You weren’t even there with us for the past two years, while we were dealing with-” Peter shook his head, reigning in his anger. “I’ve fought Thanos before, me and Dr Strange. We need all hands on deck with him having three stones already. Let me help.”

The blond glanced between Peter and Strange, before steeling himself again and nodding. “Wanda, you stay here and guard Vision while Shuri keeps trying.”

The girl nodded and the Captain stepped through the portal Dr Strange had created. Before Peter could follow him, Dr Strange put a hand in front of him. 

“I’m not going to stop you from helping,” started the sorcerer at Peter’s wary expression, “but To- Stark asked me to keep an eye on you; if I think it’s getting too dangerous, I’ll open a portal for you and get you out of there and you _will_ listen. Clear?”

 _Not a chance._ “Yeah,” lied Peter, easily.

The man seemed to sense the dishonesty, and pinched his nose before following after Steve.

“Peter!” called Harley, and the brunet stopped again, turning his face towards the younger teen. Harley was stony faced and serious as he, ignoring Wanda and Shuri, made some gestures with his hands.

_Be safe. Get dad back._

Peter smiled. “I will do my best,” then he stepped through the portal.

King T’Challa’s army was standing as a front just like in every WWII movie he had ever seen in his life. Everyone was ready on the battlefield. General Okoye and the Dora Milaje. King T’Challa and the warriors from his tribes. War Machine and Falcon in the air. The Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Dr Strange and Captain America on the field. Peter Quill, Mantis, Drax, Rocket and Groot. Easily a thousand people if not more standing ready armed to the teeth.

And across the plane a single spaceship.

The Captain frowned, tapping his com. “Are the other spaceships approaching?”

“Negative,” answered colonel Rhodes, voice tense. “Unless they have some stealth tech that keeps them hidden from both Wakandan and Nasa systems- the spaceship is opening!”

Any minuscule hope Peter had that maybe Mr Stark had commandeered a spaceship and escaped was immediately extinguished when no one other than Thanos stepped out of it.

The Titan stood on the other side of the forcefield, his expression impossible to discern from such distance.

“So that’s the ugly grape,” commented Wilson, keeping position. “And he’s… alone?”

Thanos did in fact seem to be alone as he kept walking until he was standing in front of the forcefield.

“People of Earth,” Peter startled hard at the voice speaking directly in his ear, and he saw everyone with a com unit doing the same. “I am Thanos, son of A’lars.”

“He’s taken over every com line in Wakanda,” hissed General Okoye, tapping her beads. “And according to the Princess, he’s being broadcasted internationally, too.”

“Today could have been your end,” continued Thanos. “No one stands in my way when I decide to attack. But you, you foolish humans are luckier than you know. You will be the only planet visited by me that will not fall.

“A promise has been extracted from me, a promise that I never decimate or raze your world to the ground.

“Tony Stark,” he spoke, and Peter almost took a step forward, only Dr Strange’s fast reflexes stopping him. The doctor's face was blank. “The man you scorn and betray and lie to at every turn, he bargained for you. He saved you from me once, with the nuke in New York, and now he saves you once again. It is only by his will that today I don’t come to fight and destroy, only to collect.”

He put a hand forward, touching the forcefield and Peter felt everyone in the field collectively holding their breath as it shimmered and disintegrated like it was made of glass. “Hand over the mind stone and then I will leave, for today I do no wish to harm any of you. I have made a promise.”

The Captain activated the shields on his wrists with a flick of his hands. “Unfortunately for you, we’ve made no such promise.”

T’Challa took a step forward, making an X on his chest. “Wakanda Forever!”

“WAKANDA FOREVER!” Shouted back the army and then they were descending on him, aircrafts firings, tanks shooting and soldiers screaming.

The sheer scale of people and weapons that ran at Thanos was so overwhelming that for a second Peter truly believed that they had a chance. The Wakandan army was the first line of offense while the Avengers, the Dora, the King and some other defended the castle in case Thanos had any other surprise, but for now it seemed like -

Peter heard the sound before an energy blast sent him and everyone flying backwards, destroying their attack formation with one move. He managed to land on his feet, and watched in shock the small crater Thanos had created with his punch.

“The power stone,” groaned Stephen also on his feet. “We need to get the gauntlet off him again.”

“Bastard!” shouted Peter Quill, using his boots to jump towards Thanos, shooting him as he did so. 

Thanos made a sweeping gesture with his gauntlet and a red mist, brighter than the Scarlet Witch’s hit everyone. For a moment Peter wasn’t sure what exactly had happened, and then,

“What the hell?” shouted the Black Widow, her widow bites turning into dust. She reached into her holsters and pulled nothing out but more sand.

Around them the aircraft ejected the pilots inside them as they turned into nothing and every weapon disintegrated in the hands of the army and the Avengers. Even the Captains new shields disappeared, together with the Winter Soldier’s rifles and knives.

“Fuck,” cursed Falcon, when none of his weapons seemed to shoot.

“This is _not_ going to stop me,” growled Peter when his web shooters refused to work and charged at Thanos together with the Black Panther, Dr Strange and the Captain.

One moment they were running all rushing at him and the second the Captain, the Panther and the Doctor’s bodies were stuck in stone, unable to move. 

“What the hell?!” groused the blond, watching in horror as everyone who tried to mobilise against Thanos fell into the same situation. 

“Pe- Spider Man!” shouted Dr Strange, when he saw that the boy wasn’t one of those stuck in stone. “Get out of here, _now_!”

“Not so fast,” came Thanos’ voice, and Peter whirled around fists coming up. The titan was standing not too far from him, a pleased smile on his face. “You are Stark’s son.”

Instead of answering him, Peter leaped at him trying to kick and punch at him. Thanos seemed to be humoring him as he deflected every move, which made Peter even madder. 

“You are spry, and tenacious. Just like him,” complimented the titan.

“Where is he? Where is Mr Stark?” demanded the teen, finally managing to connect with Thanos’ face. Next second he found himself sent backwards, hitting the Captain America-Stone.

“Peter!” called Stephen.

“I’m fine,” managed the younger boy through gritted teeth, ignoring the pain and climbing to his feet once more. “I can do this all day.”

“Perhaps,” agreed Thanos, frowning at the red light coming from inside the castle. “However, I am on a timetable.”

Peter made to run at him, and immediately found his feet stuck into granite once more. “Bastard!” He snarled trying to break the rock with his hands and finding them too stuck into the rock formation. “Coward!”

“I’ve made a promise to your father,” told him Thanos, proceeding towards the castle. “I shall not spill his children's blood today.”

+++

As he made inside the castle, Thanos heard some whispered words from the place were the red light was coming.

“It’s all right. It’s all right. I love you,” whispered the synthesized cyborg - Stark's creation - as the witch with the red magic disintegrated the stone in his head, tears rolling down her face.

He barely spared any attention to the dark skinned girl who made to attack him, turning her weapon into bubbles and immobilizing her with nothing more than a wave. Instead he felt his heart ache slightly, looking at her sacrifice the being just as he had tried to sacrifice Gamora for the soul stone.

When the mind stone broke, the energy from it broke the all the windows in the castle and sent them both crashing to the ground, the witch crying with glass in her hair.

He understood her tears. Just like when he had sacrificed Gamora for a soul stone that was no longer there.

“I understand my child,” he told her, coming to stand closer to her. “Better than anyone else.”

The witch glared at him, shaking slightly in pain and anger and fear. “You could never.”

“I lost more than you can know,” he told her, and shook his head. “But now is no time to mourn. No. Now… is no time at all.” Just like his sacrifice of Gamora had ended up meaning nothing… 

He twisted his gauntlet, green light emanating as he activated the Time Stone. The shards of the mind stone repaired themselves as time was moved backwards, coming back into the mind of the synthezoid until it returned to life once more.

“NO!” Shouted the witch, reaching out for her powers as Thanos immediately swatted her away hard enough to knock her out.

Thanos grabbed it by the throat, ignoring the way it struggled weakly against him as he put a hand on the mind stone. “I promised Stark no blood would be spilled on Earth and none of its mortals would lose their life at my hands. That none of his family would die.” He digged his fingers inside Vision’s head and pulled out the stone in seconds, barely paying attention as the being died once more. “You betrayed him, and are, therefore, no longer his family.

He let the synthezoid’s body fall on the ground and placed the yellow stone in his gauntlet.

"I keep my promises.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also, Thanos claims to 'know' Tony in the movie. I have decided that this means that Thanos has spies on Earth, spies that he used to figure out more about Tony and the stones before he launched his attack
> 
> every narrator in this fic is unreliable, because none of them has the full information - they all work on assumption, for example in this chapter:  
> tony has no idea what the reality stone so when thanos uses it on him to make him see siberia, he has no idea its happening  
> nebula has only ever seen the stone used in one way, so she wouldn't know what happened either when tony talks to her  
> thanos is destabilizing tony, basically


	3. III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Nebula try to escape, and then have to face the consequences of their actions.
> 
> On Earth, new SHIELD gives the Avengers some news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The voting ended! I had a total of 37 votes with  
> \- no ship: 10.8%  
> \- Tony Stark/Stephen Strange: 40.5%  
> \- Pepper Potts/Tony Stark: 48.6 %
> 
> so endgame is pepperony!
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: mental and psychological torture, gory descriptions, mention of vomit, blood etc

**Chapter III**

Tony was busy scribbling down on a piece of paper - apparently paper and pen were universal - when one of Thanos’ unnamed lackeys knocked at the door.

“One second,” he called, carefully placing the piece of paper on the bed. He knew that, even written in code as it was, leaving it on his bed, easily accessible, was a gamble. However, he had no doubt he was being observed one way or another, and hiding it would simply make it look more suspicious.

He opened the door, and startled, confused when he saw the lackey holding a tray. “Uh?”

The lackey did not reply, walking inside and setting down the tray on the desk. 

“Wait! Where is Thanos?” he asked, placing himself in front of the other. 

The lackey stared at him with creepy white eyes and then pointed at the plate. “Supper,” he let out in a grunt, before side stepping Tony and walking outside.

Tony watched him close the door behind him, thoughts immediately swirling around his mind. Was this some sort of test? For as long as he had been in the ship - except at the very beginning - he had been ‘supper-ing’ with Thanos. He didn’t exactly enjoy the company or the discussions, but he had sort of grown accustomed to them.

And Thanos had promised to not torture Nebula so long as Tony continued coming to said suppers. Had he changed his mind on that? And if he did, was he going to change his mind on other things?

Instead of letting those thoughts consume him, he picked up the tray and stepped outside the room, walking down the memorised path towards the dining room. 

But the titan wasn’t there. The table wasn’t even set out, and the room was dark. Even the buzzing that gave him not-exactly-headaches whenever he walked in was missing. It was almost like -

Tony started towards Nebula’s cage as quickly as he could, still holding onto his tray. He was not at all surprised to see Nahiri standing in front of the cage, all three of her hands holding her guns.

Nebula stood up when saw him, and he saw it in her eyes that he was, in fact, correct. “Hey, Nebs,” he greeted her, pretending to be surprised at the fact that the bug alien’s was there. “Hairy?”

The alien glared at him. “Nahiri,” she corrected.

Tony gave her a distracted side glance, squinting at Nebula. “What are you doing?”

Nahiri turned to investigated and Tony moved immediately smacking the tray against her head as hard as he could, with the precision taught to him by Romanoff and Happy both. She fell to the ground immediately, and Tony grinned at a mostly unimpressed Nebula. “Boy, I’m good.”

“Her hands,” coaxed the cyborg. “Put one of her hands on this spot here,” she indicated, “and it will let me out. Quickly. Thanos has been gone for seven terran hours already.”

“Got it,” said Tony kicking all guns away from the alien’s reach and then pressing her digits on the surface previously indicated. “Do you know where he is? Did he go to Earth?” But that wouldn’t make sense. So far Thanos hadn’t broken any of his promises. Sure the mind stone was on Earth, but he seemed to understand the value of family, in his own way. If he had been observing Tony, he’d know that Vision was basically Tony’s son. He would wait for Tony to be dead before attacking earth, as promised.

The wall beeped and a door appeared on the glass wall, opening up. Nebula stepped out and grabbed two of Nahiri’s guns before throwing one at Tony. “I don’t know where he is, but I doubt he went far. Can you use it?”

“I was the most capable weapons developer for over two decades,” Tony answered, quickly inspecting the weapon as he followed her. 

Even with adrenaline pumping in his veins, he couldn’t help but wonder if this escape attempt was ill conceived. They didn’t know _where_ Thanos was or how long it would take him to make his way back. All they knew was that he wasn’t on board the ship right that very second, and they didn’t know how many of his lackeys he had left behind.

But at the same time, a chance like that might not come up again. Tony had spent the past few days - weeks? months? - mapping out the ship and trying to figure out the technology it worked on, with little result. Everything worked on a an almost wireless connection that Tony couldn’t quite understand where it derived from, and he wasn’t allowed anywhere near the engines alone. If there were any machinery in the walls of the ship, Tony hadn’t been able to find a way to look at them.

He had still kept a note of everything he managed to find/figure out but it wasn’t as much as he would have wanted.

“Do you kno- Watch out!” 

Nebula shot the two lackeys who made to run at them without breaking a sweat. “I’ve escaped from him before. So long as we can get off this ship I can figure out somewhere to hide. Come on!”

“I defer to you, Neytiri,” he answered, aiming and shooting at another one of the ship’s inhabitants that had aimed at Nebula. 

“I had him,” told him the blue woman, before turning to the left.

“Sure you did.”

The hangar wasn’t quite as big as the ones on the Helicarrier, but there were a lot more pods. 

“Come on!” encouraged the cyborg, jumping inside one of them as Tony hurried after her. 

The moment they stepped inside, the pod locked after them, a red light appearing in front of them in an alphabet Tony couldn’t read but whose meaning wasn’t that hard to parse. 

“Is that supposed to happen?” he asked warily, a sense of dread coming over the earlier adrenaline.

Nebula didn’t answer, opening a part of her metal arm and trying to hack into the system.

“I’m going to assume no,” breathed the engineer, leaning forward slightly. “Can I help? I’m okay with this sort of things.”

“Do you get a lot of Nurfeim spaceship on Terra?” hissed the cyborg, and Tony could see the hint of panic in the set of her shoulders as she worked. She was scared.

“No, we don’t,” he answered, forcing himself to remain calm if she couldn’t. “But if you tell me what to do, I can help -” He lit up as the warning suddenly disappeared. “You did it!”

He couldn’t see her face, but she did not seem as enthused as she ought to be by the achievement, and Tony felt the dread return with a vengeance even before she answered. 

“I didn’t do anything,” she started, then froze as the entire pod disappeared in nothing but butterflies around them. “What-”

“Nebula. Stark,” came Thanos’ voice, as the titan walked inside the room.

Every bit of hope simply burned out of him. They had run out of time. If only he had noticed Thanos wasn’t there sooner, if only -

Nebula let out a yell, picking up the gun but before she could even fully hold it, it dissolved into bubbles.

Thanos looked at her in disapproval. “Again, daughter? I feel like I’ve lost count of how many times you betrayed me, now.”

“I am _not_ your daughter, you monster!” she shouted, shaking in rage.

The titan narrowed his eyes at her, taking a step forward. “I really need to teach you a proper lesson. Perhaps it’s time to upgrade that tongue of yours, uh?”

Tony wasn’t quite sure what Thanos meant by ‘upgrade’, but the way the alien girl flinched was answer enough. So he ignored the churning fear in his chest and took a step in front of her, ignoring her startled gasp behind him. “No. If you need to punish anyone, it should be me. It wasn’t Nebula’s fault, it was mine.”

“Stark-”

“It’s my fault,” he said, louder. “I’m the one who noticed you were gone and tried to make a run from it. She simply followed after me. Whatever needs to be done, you can do it to me. It’s not her fault.”

“Are you stupid, terran?” hissed the girl, distress and confusion clear in her voice. “You-”

“Nebula!” He didn’t mean to snap, but he needed her to stop. “Let me deal with it. I can take it.”

“No you can’t!”

“Admirable,” said Thanos, almost chuckling. Tony stared at him, wary as he shook his head, an almost fond look in his eyes. “Again and again you put down yourself and your life for lesser people who do not deserve you. Ready to face even death itself for those you consider yours. Your bravery and selflessness are divine.”

Tony did not feel brave at all. All he felt was a sense of responsibility for the only sane person on that ship, and, after all his mostly pain free stay at ‘la ship de Thanos’, especially in comparison to Nebula’s treatment, he was ready for his own dose of pain.

Thanos snapped his fingers - with the normal hand - and two of his lackeys came forward, grabbing Nebula by the arms. “She will not be harmed,” reassured him the titan when Tony startled, worried.

Tony flinched back, not having noticed him moving closer. Thanos did not seem bothered, a huge finger resting under his chin as he studied him more closely. 

“You take responsibility for Nebula’s actions, mortal?” he questioned.

The buzzing had returned, somehow louder than before, like a new voice had been added. It felt like it was saying something, but Tony could not discern any words in any language he knew. 

“I do,” he agreed, heart thumping loudly in his chest. 

Thanos gave him another of those disquieting gentle smiles and let go of his chin. He motioned in front of him with the normal hand. “You can go to your room for now. I will have you called once I have decided on a suitable punishment for you. Until then, I’m afraid you’re going to have to cut communication with Nebula.” Tony opened his mouth, and Thanos shook his head. “No harm will come to her.”

Tony nodded, trying not to let his anxiety show on his face. “Very well.”

+++

It took five more days before his punishment was decided.

Five long days in which he thankfully didn’t have to supper with Thanos but which meant he was completely alone and cut off from everyone else. Even Thanos’ lackeys/Tony’s guard dogs - which included a very pissed off Nahiri - did not speak one word to him.

He felt like at the very beginning like he was going mad alone, rotting in his comfortable room.

When his punishment was decided on the fifth lunch/dinner alone, Tony found himself almost glad, if only to escape the confinement of his own room. Hell, he’d take the uncomfortable suppers with Thanos once more if it meant not having to be stuck inside that room with nothing but his own mind for company.

That thought quickly evaporated when, instead of the dining room, he was brought to a room that was completely empty, save for a chair in the middle of it, and Thanos. Nahiri, quite gently, pulled him forward until he was right in front of the chair, Thanos looming over him.

An unbidden thought that he had done everything in his power to ignore came up again; what if the ‘special’ way Thanos treated him was due to some sort of… attraction towards him? What if when the titan said that they were ‘two sides of the same coin’ he meant it in a romantic sense?

“Sit down and put both hands on the sides of the chair,” instructed Thanos, and Tony found himself complying without much thought.

Jesus, what had happened to him? When had he become so… meek? 

Even in bowels of Afghanistan after hours and hours of waterboarding he had not made it easy on his kidnappers. He had bit, screamed, dragged his feet until he could no longer lift his head up. And here, in space, with a man - being? - who had, so far, not even laid a hand on him, he was playing by the rules and following his every request.

_Then again, in Afghanistan there weren’t 4 billion people’s lives riding on his continued good behaviour. Just him and Yinsen._

“Balance is important, Stark,” said Thanos, snapping him out of his thought as he fastened some belts around his forearms and wrists. “Despite what many believe, I do not rejoice in death and destruction. I do not find satisfaction in killing people.” Tony found that hard to believe. Thanos continued speaking, fastening his feet to the chair now. “But I understand balance and, until I have located space and soul, the burden of evening out the population of the universe befalls to my shoulders.” 

It really did not. Tony kept his mouth shut, watching apprehensively as Thanos took a step back from him observing him clinically. 

“I promised you to not destroy or kill any person on Earth, and I have kept my promise,” he continued after making sure that the bonds were tight enough. “But balance must be kept.”

He waved his hand in the air and several screens appeared in front of him, a number of Thanos’ army’s ships docked on the surface of a planet. There were a number of humanoid cyclops with purple feathers instead of hair standing off not too far from said ships and Tony felt his heart sink.

“W-What,” he managed, turning wide shocked eyes at Thanos.

The titan looked almost apologetic at him. “You were called Merchant of Death, but you never took any pleasure or satisfaction in death, did you? You were never fond of battle or destruction.”

The doors of the ships started opening and Tony started struggling against his bonds. “Wait, wait,” he called, trying to look away from the screens. It was futile, they were everywhere he turned in the room.

“Balance,” came Thanos’ voice, the door closing behind him as, in front of him, all ships fully opened and with guttural cries and screams his armies descended on the planet.

“No!” he shouted, pulling harder, but it was like they were made of vibranium. They were unyielding. “Oh god, oh god,” he tried and then the screaming started.

These armies weren’t just made of Chitauri. There were countless of alien races Thor had never spoken of moving like zombies at the soldiers - they must be soldiers, right? - of the unnamed army.

There were words and cries being bellowed everywhere in a language Tony didn’t understand but made his heart clench painfully. 

“Stop, stop,” he begged, staring horrified as a Chitauri ripped one of the feather people in half and run forward before the body had even hit the ground, the sound loud even over the sound of the fight. “God, stop!”

A being that looked like Nahiri ran forth and smashed a club on a feather soldier’s head and Tony had to close his eyes, heaving and trying not to throw up. 

But the noise didn’t stop and he couldn’t move his hands to cover his ears. Every crunch and clack felt like a hit directly against his skull, his brain promptly offering him infernal visuals of what must be going on in the screens even as his breathing came in short.

“No more,” he begged, headbutting the back of the stupidly soft chair. “Please no more.”

Every scream, every cry, every crack and smash was multiplied in each screen. Just the sound of blood spilling everywhere and bones creaking and Tony couldn't do this anymore. He was vaguely aware that he was screaming to try and drown out the sound, but he couldn't hear himself. Just the screens everywhere. He couldn't, it was too much, he could almost _smell_ it, god -

When he came back to, the fighting hadn’t stopped. 

_Stark men are made of iron._

_We are iron mongers._

“Please, please,” he begged, eyes filling with tears as Thanos’ army descended upon what looked like one of the cities of the planet, breaking down doors and attacking.

He managed to keep himself from throwing up, eyes firmly shut, until what sounded like the cry of a baby came from the screen. His eyes opened against his will, and he was presented with the image of a small head of feathers staring at him as it rolled on the floor in the screen, what looked like the mother screaming even as she was also striked by Thanos’ army.

This time he couldn't help but throw up all over himself before he passed out again.

It did not stop. It kept going.

People falling and being murdered in front of him while he could do nothing to stop them, while he was strapped in and forced to watch as mothers were murdered, children ripped apart, life destroyed over and over again.

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, his brain a loop of screams and shouts. His own and theirs.

He was crying harder than he had ever done before in his life, harder than when his parents had died, harder than when the original JARVIS had died.

“Please, stop,” he kept whispering and then shouting every time he opened his eyes and the torture wasn’t over. The taste of vomit was on his tongue and he was sure he had bruises if not scratches all over his arms but it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because thousands upon thousands of people were being murdered right in front of him _because of him_. Because he had chosen to protect Nebula, because he had chosen to save Earth.

A baby’s cry sounded on one of the screens he couldn’t see, and Tony screamed as hard as he could, as loudly possible to drown the sounds for the screen. But it wasn’t enough and his voice cracked and the battle raged on.

And on.

* * *

One of the very first things Mr Stark had taught him was to never ever trust SHIELD.

(“ _They are liars and backstabbers and have no qualms throwing others under the bridge if it means saving their own skin,” he had told him, face serious. “Their methods are questionable at best and insane at worst; there is a reason HYDRA managed to grow and fester among them for so long. Their methods are similar enough that they never noticed they were helping the enemy.”_ )

And yet, here he was sitting with some of the Avengers - ex and new - in SHIELD’s newest facility, Director Fury before them with a serious expression on his face.

“Any luck with the Compound?” he finally asked, turning his eye on Colonel Rhodes.

The man grimaced, shaking his head slightly. “No, unfortunately. FRIDAY has fully locked everyone out, and any attempt to hack her will terminate with her self destructing herself and everything inside.”

Fury frowned slightly. “JARVIS remained fully operational even with Stark missing for three months.”

“JARVIS and FRIDAY might be similar in the fact that they are both AIs, but they are not the same,” firmly said Rhodes. “To start with, Tony has been kidnapped several times during JARVIS’ time. As a learning AI, he created protocols that he could follow in such instances and knew what to do. If he had been here now, things would have been different.

“FRIDAY though, was put as a disadvantage. First of all, JARVIS was alive for twenty-thirty odd years. FRIDAY is only a couple of years old,” Fury nodded in understanding. “Second, following the whole ULTRON thing, Tony was afraid of letting her develop her own personality and making her more… ‘human’.”

Maria Hill frowned. “He was afraid of creating another ULTRON? But he was acquitted.”

Colonel Rhodes shook his head. “No. He was afraid of losing another AI like he lost JARVIS. To him, his AIs are like his children. He told me he didn’t know what he’d do if he grew to love FRIDAY and then she died too.”

No one quite knew what to say to that, and the Black Widow cleared her throat. “So even though we have been pardoned, we have nowhere to stay,” she summarised.

“Unless you sign the Accords Stark spent the past two years amending,” pointed out Fury, to which the Captain let out a weary sigh.

“Sir-”

“Look, Rogers,” sighed Fury, barely restraining himself from glaring. “Your pardons were issued on the basis that you help us stop Thanos’ invasion. Instead the entire world got front row seats of Thanos himself accrediting the survival of our world to Iron Man. _Again_. And now they are looking at you and wondering why the hell did they even bother with those pardons if you didn’t even do your part and instead got your ass handed out to you.

“What the world needs right now is stability; it’s the Avengers. The UN is already banding together to create a new completely free Compound to keep you in,” He let out another sigh. “King T’Challa and Wakanda aren’t really in a place to still help you with funding, seen as you brought the battle to their borders and made their armies look like fools in front of the international community, and SHIELD simply does not have the resources to back you up. How can you save the world if you cannot go anywhere?” He looked away from the Captain to Wilson, Barnes and Maximoff. “Don’t you want to go home?”

“What home?” snorted the younger girl, while Wilson awkwardly patted her back.

Barnes shrugged. “I don’t have a home, but I’d like to see Brooklyn again.”

Rogers gave them a pinched look then gave a small nod. “I don’t make any promises for myself. But I will read the Accords and if I find them all right, I’ll sign.”

Fury put his hands up. “That’s all I ask.”

“This is all well and heart-warming,” said Dr Strange, arms crossed around his chest. “But I do not understand why you had Spider Man call me. I have no intention of joining your superhero boyband.”

Romanoff, Hill and Fury made the exact semi nostalgic expression for a second before the man got more serious. “Of course. This is about the decision of the Accord Council, UN and WSC regarding the rescue mission for Stark.”

Peter perked up from the wall he was resting on. Finally some actual news that -

“They refused.”

Peter froze behind his mask. You could have heard a pin drop.

Even Dr Strange seemed shocked. “I beg your pardon?”

“They refused. They are giving no money, no nothing to rescue Stark,” he continued speaking despite the fact that everyone in the room seemed frozen - even the Guardians. “They dressed it up nicely but to sum it up: Stark is the only thing that stood between Thanos and the annihilation of Earth. And if the price of continued existence for 8 billion people is one man, they are willing to pay it.”

“But-” tried Peter, no words actually leaving his mouth.

But it made no sense. They were… giving up on Mr Stark?

Dr Strange was glaring hard at the floor, and Colonel Rhodes had tears in his eyes. For once, the Guardians were quiet, knowing better than to involve themselves in this discussion.

“Mr Stark saved New York,” he finally managed, voice drier than the desert.

Fury looked at him with pity. “And now, arguably, he saved the world. He’ll be honoured as a hero and-”

“He’s not dead!” almost shouted Peter, hands curled into fists.

“It comes with the job,” said Mr Captain America, voice gentle and eyes sad. Peter wanted to smack him, what right did _he_ have to feel sad? Him and Mr Stark weren’t even friends anymore. “Earth lost its best defender but-”

“He’s not _dead_!” he repeated, moving off the wall to glare at the occupants of the room. “So what you’re just giving up on him? You’re turning your back on him?!”

“Unless I know where he is, I cannot open a portal to him,” said Dr Strange, face pained. “I’d have better chance of throwing us in space and killing us. It’s like finding a needle in a thousand haystacks, in the dark and wearing gloves.”

“Without the backing of any government or anyone with money, there is nothing we can do.” added the Colonel, voice heavy.

Peter twirled on him, fighting to keep the tears at bay. “You’re his best friend! You looked for him for three months in the desert and you throw the towel after a month? You just give up-”

“You think it’s _easy_ for me?” snapped the man, standing up with loud whirring. “You think I want to stop looking for him? If I could in any way, I would take my fucking suit into space right now and look for him until I _die_ !” He took a deep breath, not even wiping away the tears rolling down his cheeks. “I bent backwards for the military to keep going with their search and that only worked because Tony made them weapons so they wanted to hang on a thread of hope. Right now I have no money and I have been honourably discharged after my injury. We are nowhere near the technology needed for space travel and Stark Industries cannot fund anything with the way the stocks keep fluctuating at the moment. Pepper has even tried to see if she can get R&D to partner up with NASA or Elon Musk, but both are to shaken at the moment. The only thing we have is them,” and here he pointed at the Guardians, “And none of their contacts will be willing to help them track down Thanos. So if you have any idea on how to find him I’m all ears, but don’t you _dare_ stand there and accuse me of being a traitor when there is nothing I _can_ do for Tony!”

“Easy, man, come on,” said Wilson, helping him back on his chair while he sobbed, and Peter felt his own tears wetting his mask.

No one else was meeting his eyes, except Dr Strange. Peter hated the pity and compassion he could see in those grey eyes, but still allowed the man to put a hand on his shoulders as he opened up a portal to his apartment.

“Dr Strange? Peter!” called May the moment they stepped through and Peter fell to the ground, letting out all the tears he had kept in since titan, sobs rocking his body back and forth. “Peter? Dr Strange what's wrong with him?”

“He’s gone,” managed the teen, hiding his face in his hands. “Mr Stark is gone, and it’s all my fault. I've lost him. I've lost him.”

* * *

Tony woke up to the feeling of hands running through his hair, gentle and rhythmic.

His throat was parched but, for once, his mind was completely blank; no thoughts, no ideas, just a pleasant buzzing and the feeling of being submerged in water that, surprisingly, didn’t send him in a panic attack. Instead it reminded him of many vacations to the sea side with his mother, when she needed to escape the limelight and Howard.

“I am sorry, dear one,” came a deep rumble from over him. 

It should freak him out having the titan so close to him. For all intents and purposes he should be jumping and screaming at having a genocide enthusiast petting his head like he was a cat. 

He should be struggling and screaming and doing his best to get away from the purple giant.

“Water,” was what he croaked instead, and Thanos paused his ministration.

“Of course,” came the gentle answer as a gauntleted hand appeared in his - fuzzy - field of vision. Then he lifted Tony’s head, carefully feeding him the drink. “Easy… easy.”

Once the cup - goblet, really - was drained, Tony found himself falling back on what he could now see was Thanos’ lap. Still, for some odd reason, the realisation was somewhat comforting, rather than creepy. 

And why wouldn’t it be? Thanos was always so careful and gentle with him. He had never laid a finger on him. He took _care_ of Tony, since the beginning. Rescued him -

_Using you. He’s dangerous. Wake up!_

That was a new one. For once the buzzing voices were making out words. They didn’t make much sense though. Why would Thanos be dangerous? Unlike all of his ‘friends’ Thanos stopped hurting him once they became closer. 

“I’d never hurt you, dear one,” agreed Thanos, and Tony’s lips turned in a small smile of their own accord.

Thanos hurt him at the beginning, but that was because they were on opposite sides.

Him and Romanoff were supposed to be on the same side, and she had betrayed him before they even knew each other. Then she had pretended to be his friend for a couple of years and then betrayed him again.

Rogers had called him a ‘big man in a suit of armour’ when _he_ was the one who _made_ the goddamn suit. Rogers had brought nothing to the Erskine formula, other than his own body. Even the shield he was so proud of had nothing to do with him and everything to do with his father acquiring Vibranium somehow and creating a prototype. And then he tried to kill Tony with the same shield.

Rhodey had dismissed and then blamed his PTSD after Afghanistan, despite having known Tony for years. And then he stole the suit-

Tony frowned a little at his own thoughts. He _let_ Rhodey leave with the suit.

_Exactly. You let him take the suit. He didn’t betray you, he’s your friend._

Rhodey was his friend, of course he was - is.

The suit thing had been his choice, because if he simply gave it to him Rhodey would know something was wrong.

But what kind of friend didn’t notice that his best friend was _dying_ and acting out?

No, Tony had made _sure_ to push Rhodey away as much as he could. He couldn’t blame him for noticing when Tony made _sure_ he wouldn’t notice.

And Pepper. Pepper who he loved so much and was one of the most important constants in his life.

The same Pepper who left him when things got too hard, because she thought she was better than him -

Wait, no. Pepper _did_ deserve better than him. He kept being Iron Man despite knowing how scary that was for her, afraid of seeing him go out in his suit and come back in a bodybag.

But Tony saw protecting the world as his duty. He was protecting her! She should be more grateful -

That made no sense. Pepper simply wanted him to put himself first every now and then. She was always there for him, supporting him. She had taken a _break_ from him because she wanted to sort her priorities. She never stopped loving him, and he never stopped loving her. They were engaged and when he finally got back on Earth, he knew she'd be waiting - even if he didn't deserve it. Because he loved-

Thanos let out a sigh, helping Tony sit up on the bed. “Will you join me for supper?”

Tony felt his hands shake slightly, a sudden throbbing pain hitting his head the second his skin was no longer in contact with the titan. Had he been… somehow keeping the pain off him?

Wait, what _was_ Thanos doing there in his room? Earlier… earlier…

He felt the bile raise in his throat, memories of the screaming creatures from before at the forefront of his mind. Oh god, Thanos’ army -

He ran out towards the bathroom cubicle, everything he hadn’t managed to throw up before heaving out of him. God the screams, the sounds. Oh god.

Tony wasn’t quite sure how long he stayed basically bent over the toilet, but when he finally left, pale, shaky and slightly sweaty, Thanos was no longer in the room.

The idea of eating anything made his nausea worse, but he couldn’t stay here _alone_ after the last five days. So instead he walked out of the room, grateful when the lackeys watched him warily but didn’t try to stop him.

He stumbled all the way to Nebula’s cell, the cyborg standing up from where she had been eating as he appeared into view, relief colouring her expression immediately. “Stark! You’re alive!”

He gave her a tremulous smile, all but dropping on the floor, placing his cheek on the glass wall. Nebula came to stand as close to him as possible, watching him carefully.

“What did he do to you? You’ve been gone for five days,” she tried to catalogue every part of him. “Did he… upgrade you, or something?”

Tony wasn’t sure what ‘upgrading’ entailed necessary, but he didn’t think it had happened to him. Considering the manner Nebula spoke of it, it seemed to include a lot of pain. “He didn’t harm a hair on me,”

The alien girl looked disbelieving. “You’re shaky and pale and look generally terrible,” her face was grave. “And I know Thanos. He hurt you.”

“He didn’t touch me,” he repeated, for some reason unwilling to share the horror Thanos forced him to witness earlier. Because no matter how Thanos went around with words like ‘cursed with knowledge’ and ‘balance’ what he had done to that planet was… an atrocity. “He was actually… nice.”

It was so odd to think that someone like him, who caused so much pain and destruction everywhere was capable of that moment of kindness and tenderness from before.

No one had caressed his hair like that in a very long time. Tony had forgotten how soothing it was.

“He got into your head,” decided the alien, with the same tone Romanoff used when she decided she made a strategical decision for the ‘good of the team’. It made something inside him bristle.

“How dare-”

“Stark, you need to get a grip!” growled Nebula, staring at him with anger and… fear? “This is how he does it, this is how he gets people on his side. No kindness from him comes for free. He will cause you pain and hurt and then when he stops it you think he ‘saved’ you. But it’s not saving if it’s his fault to begin with!”

Instead of thinking of Thanos, those words made him think of Sokovia. ULTRON.

He made ULTRON and then banded with others to save the world from ULTRON. So it was true, after all? Him and Thanos weren’t so different from each other?

No. Nebula was wrong. She had to be.

Everyone was capable of kindness, one way or another. Even Thanos. The gentleness with which he touched him, the kindness in his voice…

“Stark! Are you listening to me?”

Tony stood up, frowning at Nebula and then standing up. His legs still felt shaky and the idea of food made him sick, but he suddenly didn't want to stay there anymore and listen to the alien.

“Where are you going?!” she shouted after him. Tony kept walking, refusing to turn his head around.

“Supper!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pleasse give me comments i crave attention and i need affection juceyo
> 
> unreliable narrator again: tony does NOT know that thanos has the mind stone, and doesnt expect him to  
> nebula doesnt know that either and thinks thanos is simply manipulating him
> 
> also I refuse to believe that friday would willingly work with anyone after her boss is gone. She's loyal and also babie. shes not gonna let the mean people who hurt her boss inside or worse, SHIELD. and maybe shed normally let rhodeypepperpeterhappyharley in but she knows that humans can be swayed and confused and shes not allowing that either


	4. IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nebula watches as Tony spirals further down.
> 
> Meanwhile, two aliens make their way towards Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember i changed up the timeline so that thanos has not met the asgardians and bruce yet
> 
> Nebula does not mention it, but it has been 9 months since Tony and her have been taken :( sad reacts only

**Chapter IV**

~~Stark~~ Tony was losing the battle.

It was plain to see, from her cell, the minute and not so minute changes in his behaviour.

Where before he would spend as little time as possible dining with Thanos and he returned to talk to her worn out and very uncomfortable, now he came later, meek and almost… calm. The wariness behind his eyes died a little every day leaving a more relaxed and sated expression.

He would listen to her more now, instead of talk about his future escape and all the people that waited for him at home. Sometimes he still spoke of the woman he loved, Pepper, and the rest of his family, with a lot of fondness, but it wasn't the same. Even when he simply listened, it was like he wasn't fully hearing her. Or like he was selectively choosing what to hear and not to hear.

Nebula tried to spring him back into action, coaxing, goading and sometimes even mocking him just the generate the reaction she had gotten used to receiving back at the beginning. 

Sometimes it worked, especially when she dropped names like Rhodey, Pepper, Pete, Harl, Viz or Happy. They’d work like triggers of sorts, especially when he used the nicknames instead of the full names. 

He’d blink at the names, looking around in confusion but with some sort of awareness. In those moments he’d look horrified at how compliant he had gotten, and vowed that he wouldn’t let Thanos get to him again.

But the reaction, just like all of his reactions, was temporary, and the next day he returned having sunk even lower in his acceptance of Thanos and his actions. It was like she’d manage to make him take one step forward every 7 step backwards he did. A losing battle.

She’d curse Thanos’ name on those days where the names of Stark’s family didn’t manage to break through to him, which ended up making Tony unhappy with her. He’d scold her for her behaviour towards her ‘father’ and just look at her with an indulgent understanding when she said he was not her father, saying that, “I know you feel like he has betrayed you. That he preferred your sister to you. And that is not fair on any child. I’ve told him as such,” and then he shook his head like Thanos was an amusing mutual friend of theirs, “and he realises now where he went wrong. You don’t have to forgive him - god know I don’t forgive _my_ father for him choosing a supposedly dead super soldier over his own son - but know that he is sorry.”

Because now for some reason Tony had started to empathise with the Mad Titan, speaking to him and giving him advice ‘from a pseudo father figure to an adoptive father’. 

Thanos usually capitalised on what he could give his ‘children’ in order to get their trust and allegiance. He’d burn their world to the ground and then offer them a hand and a future - under his rule.

With Tony, he had gone down a different route. With Tony he had done his best to relate to the terran, unearthing all of the slights done by his team, family and terran people against him, cultivating and worsening every betrayal he had suffered at their hands - and Tony Stark was apparently ripe with wounds in his back.

Couple that with the fact that so far Thanos had not broken a single promise to Tony and add in the fact that he kept manipulating him at every corner and earning his trust, and it simply wasn’t pretty.

It was almost like what he had done to Loki with the sceptre; except this time he had somehow managed it without the mind stone and without torture. All through words, if the little she managed to grasp from Tony was anything to go by.

Tony looked up at her, eyes sparkling and yet relaxed. “You okay there, Nebs?”

The nickname that she had mostly ignored at the beginning. It gave her hope sometimes, that Tony wasn’t completely gone. That if she managed to get him off the ship, she’d get him - he’d come back. “Where is Thanos?”

“Xenari,” answered Tony with a small shrug. 

Like it didn’t matter. Like Thanos going to another planet didn’t possibly mean either extinction for them or a chance for him to get another infinity stone. (In fact, it surprised Nebula that Thanos hadn’t gone on Earth and retrieved the mind stone. Perhaps with it being stuck in the forehead of one of Tony’s children/creations he had decided to wait until he fully had Tony under his thumb?)

She bared her teeth at him, unable to stop herself from growling a little. “So what, now Thanos’ plan doesn’t seem so bad? Now you’re what, his partner?”

Tony shook his head, not looking directly at her. “I don’t like his plan. I don’t agree nor support the destruction of half of all life in the universe,” he bit down his lip a thoughtful expression on his face that was a little pained and slightly confused. “I don’t approve at all but. I understand.” 

And as much as she hated all of this, as much as his words pained and made her sick to her stomach, Nebula couldn’t push him away. She couldn’t demand he never come back again, refuse to see him. Because ~~Stark~~ Tony, for one reason or another had protected her since they had stepped foot into the ship. He had risked his life - because he didn’t know what Thanos would do to him - to protect Nebula.

In some ways… he had become her friend in a way even the Guardians hadn’t been. The Guardians had mostly accepted her because of her sister.

Tony had _chosen_ her because she was her. Sure she was the only ally around, but he had had the choice of focusing on himself only, trying to make it out alive and try to help her out and get her out with him. And for some reason he had chosen the second.

Nebula didn’t know if she’d done the same.

She was actually pretty sure she’d have done the opposite.

So now she couldn’t turn her back. She couldn’t and she wouldn’t.

* * *

Time was difficult, in space. Each world, each planet had their own way of measuring it, and every sun and every moon moved differently. A month on Knowhere could be years somewhere else; a week on Xandar was two weeks on Nelphine. 

“How long have you been here?” asked Carol, looking down at the woman in front of her.

From what she knew the Zehoberei were all but extinct. But the green skinned girl in front of her, drenched in water and shivering slightly looked distinctly like she was from there.

Carol had found her when she had arrived on the planet Vormir, body being moved around the water looking almost dead. But the moment Carol landed in the water, the girl’s eyes snapped open and she was also on her feet.

She blinked at the blonde, running a hand through her purple hair. “Not even a day. Th-” she started then frowned, getting in a slightly more combatant position. Assassin training, quickly deduced the air force pilot. “Who are you? Who sent you for me?”

Carol eyed her warily, and kept her stance mostly open and calming. She didn’t know that the girl in front of her was an ally, but she seemed to be especially if she had been left on Vormir to die. “No one sent me for you. My name is Carol, Captain Marvel.”

A flicker of recognition went through the girl’s eyes. “I heard of you. You’re wanted by the Kree. For treason.”

Carol didn’t appear phased. “Technically I left. _They_ tried to kill me first.” She returned curios eyes on the girl. “So, what’s a Zehoberei woman doing laying in the water in Vormir? Last I heard, the planet was attacked and destroyed.”

“Why are _you_ in Vormir?” counter asked the green skinned woman, seeming unwilling to answer the question.

Carol was starting to rethink the whole ‘probably an ally’ stance. She was clearly hiding something. But then again, if she was on Vormir with the guy with the red face… “Looking for the soul stone and trying to stop Thanos from getting it.”

The Zehoberei woman relaxed a fraction. “The stone is no longer here,”

That was… frightening. “Thanos has it?”

But her information from one of the planets he had hit was that he had four stones in his gauntlet. Green, yellow, red and purple: time, mind, reality and power. If he had the soul stone too -

“He does not,” she answered with a certainty that had the blonde narrowing her eyes at her. The other sighed. “The… stone keeper, he said that the soul stone is no longer on Vormir, but it has a link to it. If you sacrifice the person you love the most by throwing them down that cliff,” she pointed to the top of the rock formation, “and that love is pure, the victim and their soul will die and the stone will appear.”

A very nasty imagine was painting itself in front of Carol. She had heard of the Black Order, the Children of Thanos. Of his daughters: Gamora, Nebula and Proxima Midnight. Of the betrayal of two of them, Gamora and Nebula. “You’re a daughter of Thanos.”

The woman smiled sharply at her. “Gamora, last of the Zehoberei.”

Carol looked at her considering, before nodding. “So, Thanos is missing soul and space, so far. Do you have any idea where the space stone is?”

“Asgard,” immediately answered the girl- Gamora. Then she frowned, “What? Thanos just left not too long ago, he only had reality and power!”

The blonde grimaced, shaking her head slightly. “Unfortunately, no. A survivor from Hertok says he’s only missing two stones, right now. According to the colours she claimed she saw, he’s missing soul and space.”

“That’s… that’s impossible, how long-” Gamora paused, horror dawning on her face. “Vormir, the sleepless planet. One day on Vormir can be millennia somewhere else.” She ran a hand through her still wet hair. “Oh god, the team. And Nebula -” Carol moved to try offer her some support and figure out what else she knew, when Gamora looked up at her with a frown. “Terra. Thanos has the mind stone?”

Terra? C53? Was she talking about Earth? “Yeah, he does. Why?”

Only then Gamora seemed to notice her looks, blinking a couple of times. “You look like Quill. You’re from Terra, aren’t you?”

“When you say Terra, you mean C53, right?” she opened her space map, inputting Earth’s coordinates and showing the planet to Gamora. “Earth?”

Gamora’s expression was hard. “Yes. That’s Terra. And that’s where the mind stone was. And if Thanos has it -”

A sense of dread hit Carol immediately. She didn’t know Earth even knew about the infinity stones! If Thanos had gone for them… Fury hadn’t called her, though. 

_Perhaps he couldn’t_.

“I need to get back on Earth,” she proclaimed, moving quickly towards her space shuttle. Yes, she could fly through space, but it wasn’t an ideal form of travel. 

“I’m coming with you,” insisted Gamora, falling into step with her.

Carol kept walking but she gave the alien woman a side eye. “Thanos won’t come looking for you again?” She didn’t want to bring a war to Earth - _if_ there was even a C53 anymore.

Gamora gave her a look. “The same Thanos who claimed to love me, threw me off a cliff and then left me to die when he didn’t get a stone for his efforts?”

Well.

+++

It took a long time to arrive on Earth, and when they did Carol was both glad and confused to see the place standing and looking normal.

She had been on a couple of planets hit by Thanos, and none of them had remained calm even decades after the titan had left. It was always debris and destruction all around, people fighting against each other and wary and terrified faces everywhere.

Instead, Earth looked even better than the last time she had been on it. Her systems informed her that it was 2018, more than 20 years since she had last seen the place. Technology had jumped up incredibly since then.

She had considered landing on Maria’s property, but she had been too afraid to do so. What if that was one of the places Thanos had hit? What if Maria wasn’t there anymore?

She had been gone too long. She should have come back sooner.

Instead she landed in front of a huge complex her data identified as ‘Avenger’s Compound’ the residence for ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’. Assembled during 2012 following an alien invasion. And Fury had _not_ called her?!

Gamora had not looked surprised when Carol had read that part. “Thanos sent the godling and the Other to retrieve the space stone, with the Chitauri.”

“I heard of that,” said Carol, frowning slightly. “A red and gold suit of armour destroyed the Chitauri mother fleet with one single blow. I didn’t know it was a weapon from Earth. And I thought the space stone was on Asgard.”

Which, they had heard, as they travelled through space, had been destroyed. Something called Ragnarok?

“It wasn’t a weapon, actually. Thanos was… interested in who and what managed to stop the invasion, kill the Chitauri and kill the Other, so he studied him. And the space stone, or tesseract as they called it, was on Earth and was later returned to Asgard-”

“The tesseract?!” almost shouted Carol. “That was the infinity stone?”

Gamora raised a brow. “You’ve seen it before?”

“Yeah, Mar Vell had it and then I gave it back to Fury…” she shook her head. All along she had known where one of the Infinity Stones were. She should have taken it from Fury and destroyed it when she had the chance.

“You are trespassing on this city and this planet,” came a voice and both Gamora and Carol straightened up as a man with a cape appeared through an orange portal. His eyes were narrowed on both of them. “State your business, aliens.”

Neither of the girls spoke, too busy scanning him and his clothes. Gamora turned to Carol, eyes still on him. “Do all Terrans normally dress like this and practice magic?”

“How do I know, I haven’t been here in like 20 years. Last I know sorcerers and magicians only existed in fantasy books.”

“Fantasy books?”

“Earth did not have any contact with aliens before the Kree and Skrulls started a fight here in 1995, so anything pertaining aliens, magic and the sort was believed to be fake,” she explained, shrugging. “They called it fantasy and wrote books about it.”

“I’ll have to ask you again to state your business,” said the man in monk clothes, and Gamora and Carol turned their attention back on him again. “Who are you?”

“My name is Carol-”

“Excuse me miss,” came a voice and they all looked up as a car stopped not too far from them. A dark skinned man was leaning out of the window a loudspeaker over his mouth. “Do you know anything about a lady who just flew down on Earth just now? Witness says she was dressed for laser tag.”

The blonde kept her face as serious as his. “Oh yeah. I think she went that way.” Then she smiled when he finally stepped out of the car, coming forward and clapping his shoulder. “It’s good to see you, Agent Fury.”

“It’s Director Fury,” he told her, shaking his head as he looked her up and down. “It’s good to see you Danvers.”

“I’m assuming you know them,” interrupted the guy in monk clothes, glaring slightly at the director.

Fury eyed Gamora behind her and frowned. “Skrulls looked a little different last time I saw them, but I know _her_.”

Gamora looked offended. “I’m not a Skrull. My name is Gamora, I’m a Zehoberei.”

The wizard, who had just started making a new portal stopped, turned to look at her with alarmed eyes. “Gamora? As in Peter Quill’s Gamora?”

“He’s alive? Is he here?” immediately asked the green girl, a lick of fear in her eyes.

“He’s alive,” agreed the wizard, then made eye contact with Fury. “I think we should get the Avengers for this.”

“Keep Spider Man out of this, Strange,” told him the Director, and the Strange man - ah! - gave him a dirty look.

“I do _not_ take orders from you, Fury. I know you’re not used to it, but I’m getting tired of repeating myself.”

Fury looked a little annoyed as he disappeared in the portal, then shook his head and pointed at his car. “I’ll drive us to the new Compound.”

Carol and Gamora exchanged a look, then the blonde nodded. “Gamora will follow us with the shuttle in stealth mode. Speaking of aircrafts, did you steal the name of mine for your group?”

+++

By the time they arrived to the ‘Compound’ and Gamora found somewhere to park their shuttle, Strange was already there.

He wasn’t alone, though. 

The room was filled with several people, among which a man who looked eerily like the Captain America from the comic books, though his uniform was slightly different. 

Carol watched him curiously for a moment as they stepped inside the room, then turned around -

“Carol?!”

She looked up in surprise at the voice.

Although she had lost all of her memories before she arrived on Hala, after the recording from the black box a lot had returned to her. Not everything, of course, but enough that it didn’t take her too long to figure out who the man standing before her was.

“Jim?! Jim Rhodes?!”

Because it looked like him, only… older. But how would he -

She didn’t manage to finish the thought before the man was embracing her in his arms, hard enough that it would have hurt, hadn’t she been enhanced. “Holy shit, it is you. I thought you were _dead_!”

Fury was watching them, surprised, but she ignored him, instead hiding her face in Rhodes’ neck. “Yeah, it’s kind of a long story. I’ve been in space, lost my memory, came back in 95, Fury and Maria helped me dispatch of some aliens, then went back for a couple years.”

Jim let go of her, looking offended. “Maria _knew_ you were alive? And she never told me?” He put a hand on his pocket and pulled out a communicator that was much more advanced than the one Fury had given her last time. “I’m gonna _kill_ her.”

She took the communicator from him, feeling herself relax slightly as she hugged him again. So Maria was alive and not among one of Thanos’ victims. That was good. “Would you have believed her, considering there was no proof and I left immediately after?”

Jim mollified slightly, and then sighed, holding her. “You’re alive. I can’t believe this.”

When Fury cleared his throat slightly, Carol finally let go of him, while still keeping him close to her. 

“Okay, a quick round of introductions,” said the agent- wait, no, Director. “Avengers this is Carol Danvers, also known as Captain Marvel. She’s the actual first Avenger - it was her nickname back in the air force.” He gave her a look. “I’m assuming that’s how you met the Colonel?”

Carol raised an eyebrow at Jim. “The ‘Colonel’, uh?” 

“Attention, soldier,” joked Jim, letting a chuckle when she complied immediately.

“Carol, these are the Avengers - or some of them. War Machine, Colonel Rhodes,” Jim winked at her and she rolled her eyes, “the Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff,” a woman with blonde hair nodded at her, “Dr Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme,” the man in robes, “Falcon, Sam Wilson,” a dark skinned man sitting next to him gave her a wave, “the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff,” a young woman who was staring at Gamora with narrowed eyes, “the Winter Soldier, James Barnes,” a man with a metal arm and short hair that looked like Bucky Barnes from the Smithsonian, “and Captain America, Steve Rogers,” the blond smiled.

Carol turned to Fury, waiting for the laughter, but the man just met her eye evenly. She blinked and regarded the Captain and the Soldier again. “Seriously? Didn’t you both die or am I remembering the comics wrong?”

“Super serum,” told her the blond with a tight smile.

She shook her head, huffing a little. “Howard must have been ecstatic,” she commented turning to Jim, confused when instead of agreeing the man looked like he had just been punched. “Jim?”

Jim glanced at the soldier - Bucky Barnes, jesus - quickly before turning his eyes on her. “Howard and Maria died not too long after you disappeared.”

“Oh god,” she said, putting a hand on her chest. “Howard was... but Maria... oh god, poor Tony, how did it happen?”

“It’s a long story,” interrupted Captain America, looking uncomfortable in his seat.

Jim glared at him and wow, that was a surprise. Both Tony and Jim had been big Captain America fans - though Tony had always preferred Bucky Barnes. He must have been so happy when the man was also found alive. “It’s not that long of a story. HYDRA ordered a hit on Howard, and Maria ended up being collateral damage. It was covered up and for more than 20 years Tony grew up thinking Howard killed his mom because he was drunk at the wheel.”

 _Yikes,_ was Carol’s first thought. The second was, _God, poor Tony._

She spoke the third, frowning. “Didn’t you destroy HYDRA when you went down with the Valkyrie? Wasn’t that the story Howard told everyone?”

Captain America made a face and shook his head, Bucky Barnes sitting stiffly at the table. “They survived,” he gave her a tight lipped smile. “A lot happened, and I don’t think you’re here for a history lesson.”

Carol knew when not to push anything. Plus if the glare Jim levelled him up with was anything to go with, she’d get the whole story sooner rather than later.

So she beckoned Gamora forward. “This is Gamora. She-” she gave her a look, unsure what to continue with.

Gamora gave her a small smile. “If they know Quill, I’m assuming you know who my father is.” At their nods and the witch’s heavier glare, she continued. “Thanos pushed me off a cliff to get the soul stone. He did not get it, and I remained stranded there for a few hours. Unfortunately for me, a few hours on Vormir are a _long_ time everywhere else. Carol found me about a month ago, and told me that Thanos is still looking for two stones; which means he has four, one of which is the mind stone - which was lost during the time Loki was sent to Earth.”

“What do you mean Loki was _sent_ to Earth?” interrupted Fury, looking slightly alarmed.

Gamora didn’t look pleased at the interruption, but clarified anyway. “Loki was brainwashed by the Other and sent here to retrieve the Tesseract. But somehow, he was defeated and the Chitauri’s main fleet was destroyed.”

“He was right,” said Captain America eyes on the Black Widow. “He told us that he believed Loki wasn't fully in his right mind during the invasion.”

The other girl didn’t answer, green eyes trained on Gamora. “Continue.”

“He has the mind stone now, which means that somehow he got to Earth and collected it. So how are you still standing?” 

For a while no one said anything, silent conversations being shared among everyone. Jim stared at the ground, not making eye contact. Finally Strange rolled his eyes and crossed his arms around his chest. “He has one of our own, and he has managed to convince him to spare Earth, somehow.”

Alarm bells started ringing in Carol’s mind as Jim kept staring at the ground. 

She hadn’t exactly been around for that long, but back in the 90s there were exactly three people who would have been able to cause this kind of reaction in Jim. 

One of them was Maria, who he had just threatened to call and complain. 

The other two -

“Jim,” she said, keeping her eyes on everyone in the room to see their reactions. “Where is Tony?”

Bucky Barnes flinched. Captain America and Falcon looked away from her. The Scarlet Witch made a face. Black Widow and Fury didn’t react. The Sorcerer Supreme eyed her speculatively, a spasm on his face indicating how hard it was keeping a straight face.

Jim didn’t look up.

Carol turned to him, heart beating faster in her chest. Last she had heard, Tony wasn’t a soldier. So, “Jim, where the _hell_ is Tony Stark?”

Gamora’s head snapped up and she eyed Carol in surprise. “Did you just say _Tony Stark_?” she questioned, shocked.

Jim looked up this time, frowning at her, along with everyone in the room.

“How do you know him?”

“He’s the man in the gold and red suit,” she said, eyes wide. “After he destroyed the Chitauri mothership, Thanos did his research on who - if anyone - was inside the suit. And he came out with the name Tony Stark. The Merchant of Death.” She shook her head. “He was obsessed with him, with either killing him or owning him.”

That made sense and also did _not_ . Because of course if there was one person who could make a weapon strong enough to destroy the Chitauri _and_ a suit of armour, then you could bet 100% it would be Tony. He had made his first bomb age 10 - and fuck Howard Stark for that, seriously. By age 17 he had two fully functional bots with a rudimental AI installed. For the time, that was absolutely insane.

On the other side, “What the hell, Tony is a _civillian_ ! He’s not a soldier, why was he on the front line during an _alien attack_?!”

Jim gave her a pained expression before glaring at Fury. “SHIELD decided that an alien invasion was the perfect time to give the Avenger Initiative a try. What did you call it?”

“Colonel-”

“There was an idea, you see, Carol,” he said in a bitter and sarcastic voice, ignoring the man. “To bring a group of remarkable people, see if they could fight the battles that we never could. And somehow, that translated in 6 superpowered or very capable people, all personally vetted by Nicholas, over here. Because six people were enough to stop a horde of aliens, even though Tony made my suit much more capable for fight and _I_ had the training to back it up.”

Carol frowned at Fury who had the decency of looking slightly embarrassed at that. “At the beginning it was just Loki.”

“You could have called me,” she pointed out, crossing her arms. Then she shook her head, “whatever, we’ll talk about that later. So… Thanos has Tony?”

Strange nodded gravely. “Tony bargained his life for another hero’s. A month later Thanos arrived on Earth and took the mind stone but spared everyone else. He said that he did it because he promised Tony.”

Gamora grimaced. “Thanos keeps his promises.”

“And how long ago was that?”

Jim gave her a slightly heartbroken look. “9 months ago.”

The blonde stared at him in shock. “Thanos has had Tony for 10 months?!”

Even Gamora looked disturbed. “He’s a Terran. He wouldn’t survive torture the way other races would.”

“Tony has been kidnapped a lot of times as a kid,” pointed out Carol, defensively. Then she deflated. “But never for this long or by someone this terrible. Fuck,” she swore, running a hand through her hair. “And let me guess, the government is not funding a search for him because Earth is more important than one person?”

Fury nodded. “Got it in one.” 

“Do they not know that if Thanos gets the space stone and the soul stone half of Earth will be destroyed anyway?” said Gamora, shaking her head. “We’re lucky they are both missing right now, but our luck will run out. Thanos is relentless.”

“The space stone is the Tesseract, right?” at their nod, the Captain relaxed. “The Tesseract is safe. It’s on Asgard.”

Carol eyed him in surprise. “You guys know what Asgard is?”

“Loki was from there. Him and his brother, Thor, visited us a while back,” answered Fury with a shrug.

“Asgard is no more,” told them Gamora, an unhappy line on her eyebrows. “It was destroyed.”

“But I thought you said Thanos-”

“Thanos didn’t destroy Asgard,” she corrected. “It was something called Ragnarok.”

“Ragnarok is the end of the world, according to Norse mythology,” said the Black Widow. When everyone turned to her in surprise, she shrugged. “When Thor joined the team I did some homework. With Tony.”

For some reason Jim glared at her at that. 

The Captain looked between Gamora and Carol, heartbroken. “So Thor is dead?”

She didn’t want to give him hope but, “I don’t know but from the whispers and gossip I picked up when I was looking for the soul stone, some Asgardians survived. I don’t know how many or where they are right now or if it’s even actually them, but there is that.” 

No one was quite sure what to say after that, each lost in their own thoughts.

Carol’s were on Tony. All she could remember what the 14 years old child that she had met back in the day and imagine him in Thanos’ clutches. She was close to him, even thought not quite as close as Jim. Still...

She wasn’t sure if it would be better to wish him still alive or to wish him dead, at this point. 

Strange cleared his throat, bringing everyone’s attention back on him. He pulled out a communicator and threw it at Gamora, who caught it expertly with one hand. “Quill left that in case we needed to contact him.”

Her eyes widened then she froze for a moment. She eyed him with worry. “Why was Quill on Terra? He said he’d never go back.”

The sorcerer sighed. “The Guardians and us fought Thanos on Titan - which is where we lost the time stone, as a matter of fact.”

Gamora frowned - just how many of the stones had been sitting on Earth? - then seemed to consider her next question. “How many, uh. Died, on Titan?”

“On Titan? No one,” said Strange, but something in his tone made them not look away. He continued. “But Tony wasn’t the only one taken, no.”

The Zehoberei woman stilled. “Who?”

“Your sister,” he said, his voice soft. “I’m sorry.”

Gamora clenched her jaw and nodded stiffly. Carol was close enough to see the tears forming in her eyes as she made a vague gesture with the communicator. “Is there somewhere I can go and speak to them?”

“Yeah,” said Jim, squeezing Carol’s shoulder and accompanying her out.

Finally the blonde woman sat down on the chair, shaking her head slightly. “Fuck. This is so fucked.”

She should have visited sooner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please don't try and make sense of the timeline. I just needed a way to make Carol, Rhodey and Tony know each other and i dont care if the dates don't add up
> 
> trying to decide between carol/maria and carol/rhodey [and a small part of me is sniffing around gamora/carol] is pretty hard, so im just gonna go ahead and make it carolmariarhodey. im not going to explore this ship in any way, but u can feel better knowing that  
> as a matter of fact it is my headcanon that trouble is maria and rhodey's daughter. no i will not elaborate any further :)
> 
> please let me know what you think even if its a small thought or a phrase u liked i will wither away without support u kno


	5. V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor meets another friend from work in space.  
> It goes even worse than the last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reminder: while I do actually have a grudge against the ex-Vengers, I do NOT dislike Thor and Bruce
> 
> me, writing bad things about thorbruce: omg why would thanos do this?! why would bruce say this to tony?!?
> 
> help me with the voting for this thanks  
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-prfQuhm5ZHdbvv8ru7tIWDu1WlaZsOFWOZ_fUAeSXM599w/viewform

**Chapter V**

When Loki had told him what exactly he had been doing during those two years masquerading at Odin, Thor had been surprised.

He had heard of the Mad Titan, of course, in his quest to learn more about the Infinity Stones. And he was aware that, due to Asgard having the Tesseract, there was a big chance of the titan heading their way.

But a few years don’t change centuries of belief in Asgard’s superiority, so hearing how Loki had been drafting treaties with the other Realms, except Midgard, he had been a little... confused. 

They were on better terms now, but when he had figured out it was Loki sitting on the throne those past two years, he had not expected him to be keeping proper rapports between the Nine. Last time Loki was free on Asgard, after all, he had tried to destroy Jotunheim. Hearing how now he was liaising with them so that they would help if Thanos came after Asgard was shocking, to say the least.

Except now, as everyone on the ship laid on the floor injured or dead, he understood his brother’s action.

Because of Hela, all of the warriors were now dead. Only families remained. Thor thanked the Norms that Heimdall managed to open the Bifrost strongly enough to transport the craft behind them, the one with Korg and majority of the families somewhere safe.

Unfortunately that meant that he was now laying on the floor unconscious, all of his energy having left him, and there were no healers or magicians standing. Even Banner was down, unable to shift into the Hulk after Thanos had punched him several times.

“I know what it’s like to lose,” said Thanos and Thor struggled to focus on him with his single eye. “To feel so desperately that you’re right… yet to fail, nonetheless.” He lifted Thor up by his armour breastplate seeming amused at his struggling. “It’s frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you, to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now… it’s here. Or should I say: I _am_.”

And here he showed the Infinity Gauntlet, four colourful stones twinkling at him. Green for time; purple for power; red for reality; yellow for mind -

His one eye widened in shock at the yellow stone. “Vision?” he managed to gasp, around Thanos’ hand on his head.

The titan seemed surprised. “The synthetic being. He didn’t put up much of a fight.”

Had Earth fallen already? Had the Avengers? He had been unable to contact them, but he had hoped... Banner was in too much pain to move, but even he had looked panicked at the words.

“Speaking of Terrans. Proxima, send for the dear one.”

One of his daughters nodded at him and disappeared inside the ship, while the rest of the Black Order tightened their grasp around Loki.

Thanos finally turned to where Loki was standing, battered but alive. “The Tesseract, or your brother’s head. I assume you have a preference.”

Loki seemed to not be the slightest bit worried. “Oh, I do. Kill away!”

That seemed to take the Titan by surprise for a moment. And then the most painful feeling overtook him, burning at his head and brain, frozen like Jotunheim and hotter than Surtur at the same time, pain worse than Hela taking his eye-

“All right, stop!” shouted Loki, a blue cube appearing in his hands.

Thor bit down his comment about the Tesseract being destroyed with Asgard, the part of him that wasn’t still screaming in pain wondering if he really should be surprised. He had sent Loki to the vault, of course he wasn’t simply going to come out of it without taking some stuff.

He wanted to quip at him and his mischievous ways, but the look in Loki’s eyes... that was a look he hadn’t seen in centuries. 

_Fear._

Fear for Thor or for himself, he wasn’t sure, but it was pure, unadulterated fear.

Still, Loki gave a small smile, holding the cube tighter. “You promise you will spare his life if I give you the stone?”

“For now,” said Thanos which was _not_ a promise.

But what could Loki do? Right now he was the only Asgardian left standing and he was no match for Thanos and his Black Order, even with his two most dangerous daughters missing.

Loki nodded, eyeing the too pained Bruce Banner before handing the Tesseract to one of the members who immediately hurried to hand it over to him. Thanos let go of Thor, who fell to the ground and was immediately grabbed and tied up by the ship’s metal bars as the reality stone pulsed red.

Then Thanos crushed the Tesseract in one hand, a small blue stone remaining in his palm. The titan smiled at it, before putting it on his gauntlet, leaving only one empty spot for the soul stone.

“You rang?” called a familiar voice and Thanos smiled again as both Bruce and Thor looked at a familiar brown head approaching with shock and delight on their faces.

The Man of Iron was alive! Which meant -

Thor blinked, confusion probably visible on his face. Why was friend Tony in space? Why was friend Tony on Thanos’ _ship_? He turned to look at Loki and Bruce, both of whom were looking slightly horrified as friend Tony stopped next to Thanos, dressed in clothing that looked more apt for a Wylean than a Midgardian.

“I did send for you, yes, dear one,” said Thanos, grin growing at the horror appearing on Thor’s face. “Look who I found.”

“I’ve told you, I do not like your-” he turned distractedly, frowning at the dead Asgardians and then pausing on Thor, Loki and Banner. He paused further on Banner, raising an eye brow. “That’s… unexpected.”

“Friend Tony?” managed Thor, confused.

Thanos seemed to grow amused when Tony simply stared at him, face almost blank. “Are they your friends, Stark?”

“Uh, not really, no,” answered the brunet, making Thor’s blood run cold. What did he mean -

“He’s mind controlling you,” he realised, everything making sense. “Friend Tony, you need to snap out of it. Thanos has managed to-”

“Please stop thinking, Point Break, it does not suit you,” drawled Tony, in that usual mocking tone of his. Except he usually reserved that tone to Fury and his people, not his fellow Avengers. But he called him Point Break, that meant that -

“Seriously, it does not do you any good. Makes your pretty face all frowny and you get a big line on your forehead. You should just stay the stupid himbo you are - well that is if himbos were ignorant pricks with a short fuse and very bad bedside manners.”

Thor blinked. Why was Tony insulting him? “Friend Tony-”

“Can’t you see, Thor?” interrupted Loki, eyes reproachful. “He is no friend of yours and Thanos is not controlling him. The stone isn’t lighting up, this is all him.”

Tony clapped his hands, giving Loki a frighteningly genuine smile. “Got it in one, Reindeer Games. I’m not mind controlled- we just aren’t friends.”

Thanos’ grin grew, while Bruce finally managed to speak, body clearly still in pain. “Tony, we’re the Avengers. Don’t you remember?”

Something dark crossed the inventor’s face. “Oh, I remember just fine. That one,” he pointed at Thor, “grabbed me by the neck and tried to _kill me_ over something I didn’t activate in a fit of rage, shouting at me about ‘playing with things I don’t understand’ despite the fact that _he told me I should study the stone before he left with it._ ”

Thor actually had to stare at him in confusion for a few seconds before he remembered. Remembered Ultron’s creation and the events surrounding it. Tony grinned again, teeth shining, and Thor was suddenly reminded of how some species showed teeth before attacking.

“And you, well you were never my friend, were you, Dr Banner?” Bruce tried to protest and Tony shook his head. “I mean, you didn’t call me or check up on me when I was supposed dead following my mansion blowing the fuck up and going night night with the fishes,” he put down a finger. “You fell asleep while I was trying to tell you about it - you know as friends do - when you could have easily said you were tired and I would have respected that. Instead you were talking about how you don’t have the ‘temperament’ and aren’t that ‘kind of doctor’ when all I needed really was a friend,” he put down another finger. “And then - this one is my favourite - you stood by and watched as your buddy Thor over here tried to choke me with his godly strength when I was _out of my suit_ and then joined in to blame me over a project _we both_ worked on and _scrapped,_ a project that shouldn’t have gone online without some sort of interference - which, by the way, turns out it was _Thor’s fucking hammer_ that activated it, just icing on the cake, really - and ended it all out with fucking off to space apparently and leaving me to deal with an hostile team, the psychotic witch they adopted and the entire fallout.”

He put down a third finger then smirked a little. “So no, Banner, we’re not really friends, are we? The Hulk and I, we might be friends, we might be buddies, but you Banner? Oh no.” He turned to Thanos. “Isn’t it interesting that out of the three of them, _Loki_ is the one I’m most inclined to trust? The god of lies!”

“It is,” agreed Thanos, putting a hand on his head.

Thor watched him pet Tony’s head, unsure of what to say. He had just been enraged at the time, with the type of threat that Ultron presented and the careless manner he had thought Tony had handled the sceptre with. He was hot-headed at times, something his mother and brother had both spoken out against several times, but he hadn’t thought he injured Tony that gravely. He had seemed fine.

And then, before leaving Earth, Tony had seemed okay with them. They were with the Captain, joking about the hammer just like they had at the party. He hadn’t known Tony harboured rancorous feelings about the event.

“I apologise, friend Tony,” he tried, cautious. “I didn’t believe my actions were that bad, and you seemed fine afterwards -”

He stopped when Tony turned back at him, a scowl on his face. “How would you like it if a being much stronger and taller than you, suddenly grabbed you by the throat and shook you while your supposed friends and team simply stood by and _watched_ without helping?” he demanded, angry.

Before he could even formulate a sentence in his own - or the Avenger’s - defence, Thanos moved forward once more. 

“Why don’t we find out?” asked the titan and suddenly a huge purple hand was wrapped around his neck, lifting him up in the air.

He wasn’t using the gauntlet or the power stone, but without weapons Thanos was much stronger than Thor was, and the god of thunder couldn’t exactly conjure lightning without an atmosphere.

His eye found Tony who was watching him without a single reaction as Thanos’ hold grew tighter and tighter, tears forming.

“Stop!” called Loki, and Thor heard the sounds of weapons being drawn out.

It hurt. It genuinely hurt. Was that what Tony had felt when Thor had grabbed him? His vision was starting to grey and he couldn’t draw in any more breath.

“Let him _go_! Please!” Loki’s voice was higher than usual. Were his ears popping or was his brother near tears?

How odd. Was this the time Loki ended up having to mourn him?

“Take me instead! Let him go, I’ll do anything you want!”

He tried to struggle, but his kicks were losing strength the longer he went without oxygen. 

“Please, I’m begging you!”

“Thanos let him go please,” came Tony’s voice and the pressure on his throat eased a lot. Thor started coughing, spots dancing in his eye as his vision cleared up and he struggled to let in air.

Thanos was watching Tony, but the brunet was frowning at Loki, who was on the ground, breathing hard, terrified. The titan put a gauntleted finger under the human’s chin until he was looking at him. “Feeling merciful towards those who betrayed you?”

Tony scoffed. “As if. I simply don’t like violence, nor do I appreciate watching someone else suffer for Thor’s sins.”

“The godling is hardly innocent,” said the other, looking at Loki with contempt. 

Tony shrugged patting Thanos’ gauntlet without looking at. “Be it as it may, _I_ have no problems with bag of cats. He threw me out a window, but _he_ never pretended to be my friend any time before that.”

Was that truly how friend Tony felt?, wondered Thor, coughing. Did he feel as if they weren’t his friend, as if they had betrayed him? With his mother and brother dead (or thought dead) the Avengers had become Thor’s family. He had thought it went the other way round, too.

“I will see you at supper, I want to go talk to Nebula,” finished the brunet, allowing Thanos to pat his head once more, like some sort of pet, before briskly walking away, not once looking back.

Thanos looked at Thor on the floor, a thoughtful expression on his face. “He is right. Hurting you is not necessary for you to die. However, hurting a deserter,” he made a gesture, and Loki just grunted as he was grabbed by Cull Obsidian. “Well, that should interesting. The Other did promise you retribution in the case of your betrayal?”

Loki’s eyes were still panicked, but he held his head high, every inch the prince of Asgard that he was. "You'll never be a god," he spat at him. Then he glanced at Thor, his eyes shining greener for a moment. “I assure you, brother... the sun will shine on us again,” he promised.

“Loki,” he managed to gasp, trying to infuse in that one word everything he felt. 

Loki’s eyes softened, but Thanos didn’t look impressed. “Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian,” he told him opening a portal with the space stone and letting the Black Order through first. 

Thanos gave Heimdall’s figure, who was muttering something under his breath with his eyes closed a confused gaze, then turned his attention to Banner, still struggling on the ground. “I thought about sparing you, seeing as you’re a Terran and I promised Stark I would spare Terrans. But he doesn’t seem to care much for you so...” he made a gesture with his fingers and Thor felt strong energy hitting the ship they were on. “Let’s see how many of you manage to survive the explosion and then how many of you manage to survive in the void of space.” He finished, disappearing inside the portal.

“Loki!” tried to shout Thor, but nothing came out.

Heimdall’s eyes opened just as the blue portal closed, green energy flickering around his golden iris, a seidr that he was very much familiar with, and Thor smiled while his heart broke.

“Allfathers…” prayed Heimdall, the roar of flames audible now. “Let the dark magic flow through me one last time,”

Then the rainbow of the Bifrost opened just as the ship exploded.

+++

_“... get him… doctor… dead… coma… watch… famous…”_

Bruce became aware of his surroundings painfully slowly. He had fluctuated through awareness slowly in the past few hours - minutes? days? - but other than snippets and various words he hadn’t managed to grasp onto anything.

_“Waking… hear… Banner?”_

Someone was talking to him and Bruce forced his eyes to open as much as he could. The Hulk was quiet inside of him, a quiet that he hadn’t felt inside of him and it made him worried. What had happened?

When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a ceiling he was not familiar with. There was something inherently ‘earth’ about it though, and Bruce let out a slow breath. 

“Doctor Banner?” asked a voice, and yeah, no one in space called him that.

He slowly turned his head, surprised at the pain in his neck as he did so and found two men standing over him, matching cautious expressions on their faces. They were dressed in similar eastern/monk attires, but looked very different from each other. One was a shorter and plumper looking man with Asian features while the other looked oddly familiar, tall white man with blue eyes and interesting facial hair.

“Doctor Banner,” repeated the white man, and Bruce realised he had been staring at them without speaking for quite some time now.

“Uh, ye-ah,” he said, voice cracking immediately from disuse. He coughed, and the tall man handed him a cup of water. The scientist accepted it gratefully, the cold drink doing much to soothe his throat.

Once he was done, he put it down, taking a second to watch around him as the two observed him shrewdly. So far neither of them had seemed hostile, but if he was on Earth and unconscious he knew better than to lower his guard. 

“Where am I?” he finally asked.

“My name is Doctor Stephen Strange,” said the white man, and recognition flickered in Bruce’s eyes, “this is Wong and you are in the New York Sanctum. We are Masters of the Mystic Arts and I am the Sorcerer Supreme of this dimension. You and... fellow associates crashed through our roof a few days ago. You’ve been out of it since.”

“You’re… that neurosurgeon. The one…” his voice trailed off, unable to finish the thought. The one Tony had spoken to him about, his ex boyfriend. God, Tony.

Strange misunderstood his train of thought. “The one who got into an accident and lost his hands, yes,” he agreed, shaking his head slightly. 

Bruce decided to let him think that was what he was going to say and instead looked around himself, worried. “What about the rest? Thor?” Heimdall? Valkyrie? Loki? The Asgardians? 

Strange exchanged another quick look with Wong, who just nodded once. Then he turned his eyes back on him. “Can you stand?”

Only then Bruce realised he was laying in a makeshift bed that looked almost like an hospital bed but not quite. He carefully climbed off it, body stiff and aching but not in any pain.

He was used to only being in pain for a little while after and before he turned into the Hulk. Other than that, the Hulk always ended up taking the brunt of the ‘hurt’, and Bruce himself never had to feel it.

The power stone and Thanos though... Apparently that had been enough to scare the Hulk back into his brain worse than when that witch had sent him on a rampage, and for the first time in god knows how many years, it was Bruce dealing with the effects of the beating he had received. 

He gingerly followed after the two of them, hesitating for a second when they opened an orange portal and stepped through it. He pushed back thoughts of Loki and Thanos, and then followed them, not as surprised as he ought to be when they walked into a living room and found the Avengers sitting around a table. There were some new people he didn’t know, and Bruce mostly ignored them quickly finding Thor sitting in a corner of the room, staring vacantly at a wall in front of him.

“Bruce,” said Steve, smiling warmly at him and standing up. He met him halfway, offering his hand to him. “It’s good to see you.”

“Yeah, you too,” answered the scientist, more or less meaning it too. He had never had a problem with Steve, not really, but he had been closer to Tony than he had to him. _Had he_?

He nodded awkwardly at Natasha who looked just as uncomfortable as he felt. Good, thought a small vindictive part of him. She had thrown him off to bring forth the Hulk ignoring his feelings on the matter.

The witch also had the decency of not looking to him. Thank god for that.

His eyes went to Thor again, and Steve looked at him worriedly too. “He has barely said a word ever since you appeared here.”

“Holy shit, it’s Doctor Banner,” came a voice from the ceiling and Bruce actually jumped up before looking in alarm at a red and blue figure who was crawling around on the ceiling. He jumped down and landed gracefully in front of him. “Oh my god, I’m like, such a big fan.”

Bruce tried not to grimace, accepting the offered hand. It was surprisingly strong. “Yeah, the Hu-”

“I’ve read your paper on anti electron collision. And your stuff on gamma rays,” he continued, clearly excited. “My teacher has a picture of you in our lab, he said he used to know you, this is so cool!”

“Spider Man,” called Strange and the figure seemed to blush under his mask, letting go of his hand with a sheepish air.

Bruce could only stare at him before offering him a small cautious smile. He reminded him of -

“Who... who survived?”

“Me, you and Valkyrie,” answered Thor, much to everyone’s surprise. The god was only looking at Bruce though, an eye patch on his missing eye. “Heimdall… he has yet to wake. The dark magic he summoned was too much for the vessel.”

“But he _could_ wake?” he questioned, finally moving closer to Thor. He was the only one he actually felt comfortable around.

The blonde accepted the doctor’s hand on his shoulder and squeezed it with his own. “I know not of the magical arts. Val believes this to be some sort of magical coma, and the sorcerers of Midgard agree with her. Naught has been found to heal him, and the one person who might have the information...”

“Loki,” finished Bruce, gravelly, and pressing his hand tighter on Thor’s shoulder when the god closed his eye in pain. “Who’s in Thanos’ clutches, if he’s still alive.”

“Did you say Thanos?”

“Loki’s alive?”

“Loki has joined with Thanos?”

Thor didn’t answer, eyes still closed, and Bruce turned to the Avengers. He turned to Rhodes and Natasha, who had asked the first two questions. “Yes. We had a little run in with him and he got the space stone. Loki’s been alive all this years and turns out, he was not behind the New York invasion, in fact he sabotaged it every way he could. Thanos and someone called the Other were the ones pulling the strings.”

Natasha's face was blank, but Steve appeared thoughtful. They knew something, Bruce was sure. 

“And he told you that?” 

Now Thor did look up, glaring at the Captain. “Aye, Steven, and I find myself believing him. I had my doubts since the beginning, but I trusted the All Father’s judgement when it came to my brother.” He looked disgusted at himself and shook his head. “I did nothing but push him away and mistrust him at every avenue, and while my brother is _not_ innocent, he was not who many believed. Had it not been for him, I would have died on that spaceship. Three times.”

Bruce nodded. “It’s true. Thanos was going to choke him to death, and Loki traded his life for his brother’s.”

Spider Man seemed to straighten himself, the previous excited air leaving him entirely. “You said that you were on Thanos’ ship. Was there...” he trailed off, pointedly ignoring the looks some of the team were giving him and keeping his eyes on Bruce.

It was Thor who spoke, however. “Aye. Friend... Stark was there.”

The effect was immediate.

Rhodes and the blonde woman in spandex jumped to their feet immediately, Natasha and the man with the silver arm turned to stare at them sharply, Steve sucked in a breath, the other black man stood straighter, the witch narrowed her eyes, Dr Strange stilled and Spider Man.

Spider Man all but jumped towards them, stopping himself from putting his hands on them barely. “Mr Stark is alive? He was okay?”

Bruce grimaced, which did not unnoticed by everyone else.

“What? What’s wrong with Tony? What happened?” asked Rhodes, moving closer to them with a metal sound. They looked a little like some braces/exoskeleton fusion. Prosthetic? 

He looked back up at Rhodes and grimaced again. “Tony was there, yeah. He was there with Thanos.”

Rhodes stared at him in confusion, while the blonde woman narrowed her eyes. “What are you _implying_ when you say he was there with Thanos?”

Bruce couldn't help but wonder what her relationship with him was, as Thor answered.

“Friend Stark has been brainwashed by the Mad Titan,” he said, voice sombre. “He was on his side on the ship and was scornful when he saw me and Banner on the ship. He stood by as Thanos took the Tesseract and when he was going to strangle me.”

Rhodes let out a breath and nearly lost his balance, only Spider Man’s fast reflexes saving him from ruining on the floor. The blonde woman clenched her fists to her sides while Dr Strange closed his eyes, muttering something under his breath.

“The mind stone,” said Steve, putting a hand on his face.

“Aye. I believe it has turned his mind-”

“Has it?” came out of Bruce before he could stop himself. Thor looked at him warily, and the woman, Rhodes and Spider Man straightened up again.

Strange looked at him, expression blank. “What do you mean?”

“Tony’s eyes were brown. He was talking the same way he would in any situation. What evidence do we have, really, that Tony is being brainwashed?”

“Are you suggesting that Mr Stark has allied himself with Thanos?” asked Spider Man, voice cold. All respect and gushing from earlier was gone from his voice, the eyes on the suit narrowing at him. The room felt cold all of a sudden.

Bruce crossed his arms around the chest, ignoring the pain in his heart at his own words. Even the Hulk seemed to be emitting sad vibes from his corner. “I am saying that Tony seemed completely sane to me when he stood there and told me and Thor that we had betrayed him and that he didn’t consider us his friends.”

Steve frowned, guilt flashing on his features for a moment. “But you weren’t even here?”

The scientist wasn’t sure what he was talking about, and shook his head. “I’m referring to Ultron. I’m referring to you,” he pointed at Thor, “grabbing him by the throat in a room surrounded by people who were supposed to be his friends and co-workers and yet none of them lifted a finger to help him. Me included.” He shook his head. “Tony has a bad track record with the people he trusts. Everyone in this room - or at least everyone of the original Avengers has betrayed him in one way or another before. Thanos does not need to brainwash him to make him hate us. Hate me.”

“So what,” said Spider Man in that same dangerous voice as before. “Are you saying that Mr Stark is now in league with Thanos? That he wants to destroy half the universe, when _he_ was the one who managed to convince him to spare Earth?”

Bruce found himself wondering at the relationship between Tony and this young sounding superhero. He didn’t seem any older than 17. “What I’m saying is that Thanos grabbed Thor by the neck because Thor grabbed Tony by the neck during the Ultron debacle and Tony did _nothing_ to stop it.”

“You’re just as bad as them,” said the young boy, shaking his head and pointing at the rest of the Avengers. “Always ready to lay the blame on Mr Stark, always ready to push him under the bus if it meant you got to walk away unscathed. _You_ helped with Ultron and yet everyone blames Mr Stark, and I can see why now. You’re just like them,” he couldn’t see his eyes, but Bruce could feel the disappointment and anger in them.

“P- Spider Man,” called Dr Strange as the boy took a few steps backwards. He didn’t make to stop him though.

“No, fuck this, Dr Strange. They lived in his house, they ate his food and spent his money but are willing to believe the worst of him. They don’t know him at all, and I refuse to stand here and listen to them, and I _don’t have to._ ” He gave Bruce one last look and scoffed. “Never meet your heroes,” he finally said, before opening the window and jumping out of it.

"I'll keep an eye on him," said the blonde woman, sparing a glare in Bruce's direction before her hands lit up and she was jumping after him.

Once they were gone, the room descended in an uncomfortable silence yet again.

Bruce wasn’t sure what to think. He had considered Tony his friend for the few years they had spent together. The younger man was smart and tenacious, if a little eccentric and dramatic, but he had always had his heart in a good place.

He had, somewhere in his mind, realised that his most dramatic behaviour towards him had clearly calmed down following the Mandarin accident, but he had not made the connection back then.

Because now that he did think about it, it was clear that Tony had went from treating him similarly to the way he treated Happy to treating him more like he treated the rest of his employees: friendlier than he treated the rest of the Avengers, but with a clear line drawn between them that back then Bruce hadn’t realised.

A loss of trust.

“I don’t agree with you, Banner,” said Thor out of nowhere, drawing everyone’s attention once more. His one eye was grave. “I once believed Loki to be lost. Believed him gone forever. I refuse to believe that friend Stark has truly forsaken us and joined sides with Thanos. The betrayal,” Steve flinched once more, “at our hands might have stung, but I truly believe friend Tony was in some way manipulated by Thanos and the mind stone. Perhaps not mind controlled, but other ways persuaded. Friend Tony is a good person.”

“SHIELD believed Tony had the capacity of being their greatest ally or their greatest threat,” said Natasha, apropos to nothing. “He wasn’t aware, but he was on SHIELD’s watchlist of people with the capabilities of becoming a supervillain. And that was _before_ Afghanistan and Iron Man. Since the beginning, they were wary of him and had protocols to eliminate him. Tony is the same person that killed his own godfather after his betrayal.”

“Tony killed his godfather after the man made three attempts on his life,” said Rhodes with a glare. “And his first step was in fact finding incriminating evidence against him and throwing him in prison. Don’t rewrite history, Rushman.”

She pursed her lips, while the man spoke again. “Second, Tony was fully aware of SHIELD’s plans for him,” he continued, not hiding an ugly smirk when she frowned. Bruce couldn’t help but notice the tension between her and the colonel. “It was one of the first things he told me after New York. He told me that SHIELD considered him and half of the Avengers dangerous enough that he put his two best assassins on the team.” Steve glanced at her sharply and even Thor seemed perturbed by the information. Bruce… he wasn’t that surprised.

“Then he hacked into SHIELD’s servers and showed me the protocols they had in place in case he went ‘rogue’. He and JARVIS went on to make their own contingency plans in case he was disappeared.” His grin was sharp and full of teeth. “Tony might have started liking you, at some point, but he never trusted you or Barton. He did trust his team leader… which he never should have done either, apparently.”

Steve flinched and looked down at his hands. The man with the silver arm looked away from them, crossing his arms around his chest.

Rhodes turned his gaze away from him and turned to Bruce. “I’ve been a shitty friend to Tony, in the past. And he has been a shitty friend to me, too. He has done things I don’t agree with and vice versa.

“But in my heart, I _know_ Tony Stark. You witnessed what you witnessed, but I once tore apart the desert looking for him while everyone around me shouted that he was dead. I didn’t give up on him then and I will not give up on him now.” 

Bruce didn’t answer, and Natasha averted her eyes from them.

“I agree with James,” said Dr Strange. Bruce blinked at him; he was aware that the neurosurgeon had known Tony beforehand, but hadn't realised he still cared. Tony had only mentioned him a handful of times and only when he was mentioned by Dr Cho or others. “Stark bargained for the lives of everyone on Earth somehow, which is why we survived. Thanos could have killed us all easily but he didn’t and that’s thanks to Tony. He is still in there.”

With that he left, and Bruce remembered Thanos’ parting words about sparing Terra for him.

Finally Thor spoke too. “Tony Stark is still in there. I refuse to believe him gone beyond repair, I refuse to give up on him. We will save him and we will save Loki too, even if I have to do it alone.” His stare was firm. “I owe it to them.”

Bruce hoped with all of his heart that they were right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again - the whole bruce&tony at the end of ironman3. sure it was rude of bruce to fall asleep but tony DID make it look like bruce was his therapist by using that whole set up and that could have been annoying to bruce too, since he isn't that type of doctor. While I dont blame brucey, I can see how tony would see it sort of as a slight betrayal, like 'wow my problems don't even matter to my friend' even tho I think, had they sat together with a drink and then he explained what happened, things would have gone a LOT better
> 
> re - thor: while I DON'T hate him, that scene in AOU made me so mad. Nobody moved. No one tried to get the human out of the god's hands even though thor's muscles as as big as tony's head like wtf. it really made me upset loool (well the entirity of age of ultron made me upset, i fucking hate that movie)
> 
> RE RE: BRUCE: bruce does not hate tony and he does NOT want him dead or killed. bruce has a flight or flight response to trouble and he's a scientist. he doesn't fight for what he wants he just follows the equations. the equations says tony is angry at them and thanos is angry at them and tony is with thanos which equals to tony is a villain. bruce, whether he fully believes it or not, will present his argument
> 
> at least tony has carol, stephen, peter and rhodey at this point! also thor mayperhaps?
> 
> im writing chapter 10 actually rn so could u help me by voting here  
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-prfQuhm5ZHdbvv8ru7tIWDu1WlaZsOFWOZ_fUAeSXM599w/viewform


	6. VI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki on Thanos' ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: mentions of torture, mentions of gore, mentioned of piss.
> 
> vote for wandavision situation here please: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-prfQuhm5ZHdbvv8ru7tIWDu1WlaZsOFWOZ_fUAeSXM599w/viewform

**Chapter VI**

Once upon a time, Loki had stood in front of the Other, crazed, brainwashed, angry and in pain. The being had looked at him with half concealed pity as they exchanged words on the Tesseract.

“ _You think you know pain?_ **He** _will make you long for something as sweet as pain_ ,” he had told him.

He whimpered on the ground he was laying on, feeling a boot falling on his hand and crushing it once again, stealing a cry out of his burning throat.

The first time he had been on Thanos’ ship, they were merely trying to remake his mind. They were trying to re-mold him in the shape they preferred, make him a perfect puppet for them.

Now? Now they were wrecking everything in him. He had no dignity left, no strength, no thoughts, no plans of escape. There was _nothing_ he could offer for them to stop, and they knew it. And he knew it too.

What was he thinking, offering himself for Thor? What had Thor done for him, exactly?

He was hit again in his chest this time, and tears rolled down his cheeks. He should have stayed on Sakaar. He should have listened when Thor said that their roads had separated long ago. He shouldn't have followed after him. He was safe on Sakaar, the Grandmaster was a Celestial and no one bothered with the dumpster planet. He could have lived his life there for Norms know how long.

Once again Odin’s lies had been his undoing. 

He felt liquid falling on his face sticky and foul smelling and he couldn’t even try and be disgusted. There was no sense of pride left in him, nothing that made him want to fight, to stand, to scream that he was a _god_ … there was nothing. 

Loki had looked death in the eyes so many times and yet he had never craved it in the manner he was doing now. Heat torture, broken bones, burns from fire and ice, nails ripped out of his hands, punches that rivalled the Hulk’s... and they didn’t stop. They fed him somehow, he wasn’t sure how, and refused to let him die. 

He wasn’t sure how long he had been on that ship. How many days had he laid in his own blood and waste, body being broken and healing over and over again. Begging and crying and wishing for death.

His senses were dulled and every in his body was constantly alight with pain. His seidr completely gone when he had given Heimdall a final push to save Thor and the others, and the collar placed on his throat completely stopping it from rebuilding. 

His throat was raw and pained, but he still managed a cry when he was pulled up once more. He made some feeble attempts at pulling away, already cringing at the blow that was obviously coming.

But nothing came.

Not exactly. Something did come, but it was so unfamiliar that it took Loki’s almost broken mind way too long to recognise. 

A finger being placed on his lips.

He was still whimpering apparently. Loki couldn’t find it in himself to care enough to stop. He was in pain, and didn’t they tell him since the beginning of the torture that they were going to “make him let out the noises his throat didn’t even know it could make”?

Some time later he was placed on the floor again - the cold burned against his many open wounds - and he immediately curled into a ball, readying himself.

But again, no blow came.

He knew better, he did, but he couldn’t help but open his eyes slightly, trying to figure what was coming next. But it was for nothing, he couldn’t make out the figure in front of him, could only see that it looked shorter than Corvius or Proxima or Thanos himself. 

The figure seemed to be saying something, but Loki couldn’t hear or decipher anything over the sounds of his own heartbeat and the rattling of his bones as he breathed. They must have broken his ribs again.

He did however feel it when hands started pulling his clothes off of him and he let out another pathetic whimper. Anything but that. Please, Norms, anything but that, he begged, body frozen and refusing to answer him.

The hands didn’t stop until any protection the clothes might have given him was gone.

“P-ple-ase,” he managed to rasp out, starting to cry harder than before. He didn’t even realise he had still enough water left in his body to cry in this manner.

A hand cupped his cheek and Loki tried to pull himself away, afraid of how much a slap would hurt when he was already laying on the floor.

It took him a few moments to figure out that he wasn’t being slapped. Instead the small figure was... wiping his tears away? There was a wet cloth being passed on his body, he now realised. The touch was very careful but Loki still flinched every time it reached another part of his body, waiting for when it would stop pretending and take away that kindness, if it so was.

They had done it before, during his first stay. Gave him food and a chance to bathe himself before suddenly grabbing him and torturing him once again. They had never done it themselves, though. Not that it meant much.

He tensed, then winced and whimpered when the hand left his face and went further down his body. Immediately a hand was in his hair, rhythmically caressing it. It reminded him of Frigga.

She had loved him until the end, his mother. Would her heart break at seeing her son naked against his will, in the hand of enemies and actually finding some sort of comfort at the enemy caressing his hair? 

He hated the part of him that hoped this didn’t stop, the part of him that believed and took the comforting gesture for anything other than another way of breaking him further. But he couldn’t stop himself from calming down at the feeling of fingers in his oily and knotty hair. 

His torturer didn’t attempt to clean him further, and at some point Loki felt himself shifted until his head was on pillowed on a pair of thighs. He cried out when he was moved, and finally his ear managed to pick a noise that wasn’t of his own making.

“Shh,” said the other, a forgotten part of his brain finding it familiar. Thor? Frigga? Who was it? “I got you. I got you, Lo.”

Lo?

He fell asleep.

+++

When Loki woke up again, it wasn’t to a slap in the face, a boot to the stomach or being drowned in water. Still he immediately stiffened when he opened his eyes, the space he found himself wildly different from where he was being tortured earlier.

He turned around, body still in pain, cataloguing everything in the almost royal suite he was in, and nearly flinched again when he found Tony Stark sitting on a bed across the room but directly in front of him, watching him.

“Hi,” said the mortal when their eyes met, and he put down the book he was holding. He didn’t make move to come closer to him, remaining cross legged on the bed.

Loki kept his eyes on the human, multiple thoughts running through his brain. 

Had Stark managed to escape with him, somehow? The room looked nothing like the rest of Thanos’ ship - Loki would know. He had tried to escape several times when he was there the first time (and failed each time).

But how would he be able to do so? His suit didn’t seem to be anywhere else and, despite the muscles the man sported, there was no way he would be able to escape Thanos and the guards _and_ manage to carry Loki too.

Plus the last time he had seen him the human was standing side by side with Thanos. He had no reason to escape him, considering the gentleness the Mad Titan had been treating him with.

“W-where-” he tried to ask, his throat letting out a raspy pained sound instead. He coughed, wincing in pain and pressing a hand on his chest.

He was wearing clothes again - though nothing like what he had been wearing before - and he could feel his chest was bandaged under his garments.

“Here,” said Stark, and Loki flinched again, not having seen or heard him move before. God, he must be really out of him if a human that wasn’t _not_ trained in stealth managed to sneak up on him that easily.

He handed him a glass of water, expression clearly worried. Loki stared at the drink and the hand, trying to figure out exactly what game the human was playing. Was this some sort of divide and conquer move between him and the Mad Titan?

Stark met his gave evenly, hand not shaking, but eyes softening slightly. “Drink some. It will help soothe your throat.”

After a few more heartbeats Loki reached out for the cup, fingers shaking slightly and doing their best not to touch the other, wary. Stark did not seem to mind, instead deliberately turning his back to him as he walked back towards the bed.

Had Loki not been practically neutered with his magic almost completely sealed, it might have been impressive. Be it as it was, however, he drank slowly, keeping Tony in his eye sight and doing his best not to react at the pain/pleasure of feeling the water going down his throat. God it had been so long since the last time he hadn’t had a tube struck down his throat and water poured that way.

Stark’s expression turned sad as he finished the water. “I didn’t know he took you,” he told him. 

Neither of them needed to question who ‘he’ was. “Does it,” he managed, throat achy but words still managing to come out in a croaky voice. “Matter?”

Stark appeared almost offended at the question. “Of course it matters! I wouldn’t have let him.”

The idea of Stark ‘letting’ Thanos do anything was laughable. However, the man seemed to seriously believe in his own words. Instead of voicing that, he looked around himself once more. “What planet are we on?”

Stark blinked at him in confusion. “We aren’t on a planet. We’re in my room in the _Sanctuary_ ,” he clarified, looking concerned when Loki shuddered at the name and then winced. “Are you okay?”

So Stark had not managed to flee from Thanos. Loki was still in that prison floating in the void, simply in a better room. 

Hell, for all he knew, this whole thing, including Stark was simply a product of the reality stone. Perhaps he was still fucking with his head, making him think he was safe before striking at him once more.

A game of cat and mouse. Making Loki think that he was somehow safe and then choke him within a hint of his life and then beating him with the power stone, leaving ‘reminders’ on his body.

He wanted to go home. He wanted to go back in that cell in Asgard because at least Frigga was alive then. Because at least Thor had been there, even if he hated him. Because at least Asgard still stood, and his - estranged might they be - family was still looking after him.

“...Loki!” he looked up startled at brown eyes staring at him not too far away from his face, wide and worried. Right. Apparently Stark was real and standing in front of him again. “Good, you can see me? Breathe for me, Reindeer Games. Keep your eyes on me, breathe with me.”

He hadn’t even realised he wasn’t breathing until he took a deep shuddering breath. His broken ribs had not healed, so breathing hurt like a bitch; still he tried to imitate the man in front of him, trying not to panic when his breathing came out shallow.

“Good job. Well done, you’re doing really well Lokes,” praised Tony, still breathing exaggeratedly. “Just keep copying me.”

Why did he care?

Stark paused, frowning at him. “Of course I care,” said the brunet. Oh, he was speaking out loud. “You are, yeah. And to answer your question, they were torturing you just for the heck of it. I didn’t like it so I took you out of it.”

Loki looked up at him, stilling. “He doesn’t know?”

At Stark head shake he felt himself starting to panic again. He was going to get punished again once he was found and for once it was not even his fault. What was wrong with the human?

Stark seemed to see the panic building in his eyes and he moved until he was half crouched on his knees in front of Loki. He slowly put both of his hands on Loki’s legs, patting him gently. “I’ll keep you safe, don’t worry. He won’t get mad at you for something _I_ did. Once he gets back, I’ll take responsibility for you, just like Nebula.”

Nebula. That name was familiar. One of Thanos’ daughters, one of the ones who had fled.

He found himself relaxing slightly under the human’s touch, but something he said had him stiffening again. “Gets back?”

Stark hummed in agreement, still on his knees before Loki. “He’s fixing Nyxer.”

He said it so casually that it took Loki a few seconds to actually grasp what the brunet was saying. The dark haired man looked down at Stark, who was still caressing his legs trying to keep him calm. His expression was not much different from the first time he had seen him face to face in his tower, all those years ago.

Back then he had stood proudly in front of a demigod with nothing but his own mind and tongue (and a supernova in his chest) to protect him. He had proclaimed the brilliance of his people and how he would not stand and let Loki destroy or take over Earth in any way, shape or form. The part of Loki that had not been corrupted by the Other had been somewhat charmed by him. Charmed by the way he was ready to lay down his own life to save the Earth.

And yet he was here, sitting down on the floor in Thanos’ ship and talking carelessly about Thanos ‘fixing’ a planet by destroying half of its population, like they were discussing the weather. Like there was nothing wrong with it. 

“What happened to you, Stark?” he managed to ask, voice failing him slightly.

The brunet looked up at him, blinking a couple of times. His eyes were an impossibly warm brown, no hint of mind controlled blue in them. They looked the same as last time he had looked at him all those years ago, but the person standing before him now was a very different man.

“I’ve asked that they make us something liquid and soup like to eat,” finally said the brunet, standing back up again. “I have to go see Nebs now, so you can rest for a bit." Loki didn't even try to resist as he felt himself be slowly positioned back on the couch. He just kept observing him as Stark draped a quilt over him, careful of his injuries. "Try not to wander out, at least until I can manage to speak to Thanos.”

The careless way the brunet threw his name honestly frightened him a bit, but he managed to swallow it away and nod slowly. Stark flashed him a smile, hesitating for a second before pushing Loki's hair out his face with surprising gentleness. Again, he reminded Loki of Frigga, but he shoved the thought away, watching as he walked out of the room.

+

Thanos walked into the room a few hours later.

Stark was thankfully back inside by then, and Loki was still laying on the couch, eyes closed and pretending to be asleep but mostly trying to stay still so his bones healed correctly.

Even with his eyes closed and his magic sealed inside of him, however, he was immediately able to _feel_ the energy change the moment the titan walked inside.

He hadn’t really seen him since his second day on the ship. Then he had used the power stone to cleanly break every single bone in his body, letting him lay in excruciating pain as his accelerated healing worked overtime to mend them while he used the mind stone to worsen the pain in him. He knew he had been around for his torture after that, but Loki didn't remember seeing his face - or anyone's face, really - after the fifth day of torture.

Which was why, the moment he felt the titan’s presence in the room his eyes opened automatically and he sat up, fear freezing him up even as pain flared up his body. 

And there he was. The Mad Titan, standing in front of Stark’s door, an expression Loki had no idea of how to decipher as his eyes bored on the young god.

Stark looked up at him in confusion before following his gaze and noticing Thanos. 

Shockingly, he did not tense or even startle at his presence. If possible, he actually stood up and walked up to him with a small smile, despite Thanos looking anything but friendly right then.

“You’re back,” he greeted him, a hand patting the gold gauntlet. 

Thanos’ gaze moved from Loki, who felt like a physical thing had moved off his chest, and to Stark. “I am. Why is the godling in your chambers?”

Instead of retreating or appearing in any way frightened, Stark crossed his arms around his chest. “Why did you hide the fact that you took him from me?”

Thanos looked amused at the question. “I wasn’t aware I had to explain my actions to you.”

“You don’t,” huffed Stark, “but there is a difference between not explaining something and hiding something,” He narrowed his eyes at him. “You hid him from me.”

“I did,” agreed Thanos. Loki expected Stark to stiffen or appear annoyed, but instead he smiled like him figuring it out was something to be proud of. “I noticed your reaction when I had the other godling in my hands.”

“I do _not_ care for Thor,” spat out the mortal, with such vehemence that Loki was actually surprised. He again wondered how much this was due to Thanos twisting his mind and how much was due to his oaf of a brother ‘fists before reason’ approach.

Thanos inclined his head slightly. “And yet, you asked me to stop,”

“Not for him,” corrected Stark, and then turned to face Loki. His expression was thoughtful, something flashing in those brown eyes. Like when you see someone you think you know and yet can’t place somehow. “Rock of ages reminded me of someone else, when he was crying out.” It was almost unnoticeable, but Loki was keeping Thanos in his sights and didn’t miss the way he stiffened. Stark didn’t, still eyeing Loki in that same manner. “I’m not sure who.”

“So it’s empathy that drove you to free my prisoner without asking?” asked the Mad Titan and Stark snapped his gaze back on the purple giant.

This time he steadied himself once more. “I wouldn’t call it empathy. When was the last time I tried to help a prisoner that wasn’t Nebula?” He shook his head. “No, it’s... familiarity. I think.”

“He grabbed you by the throat and threw you out of your building,” reminded him the titan and Loki shook slightly.

What if Stark did the same to him, like he had Thor choked for choking him?

Stark gave Thanos an unimpressed look. “We were on opposing sides, back then. It’s not a betrayal if I never expected anything from him.

“And I’m aware that I will be punished for doing this without asking you first,” he continued, matter of fact. “For freeing him while you weren’t around. And I’m willing to accept that. And I want to offer the same protection on him that I am offering Nebula.”

Thanos’ eyes narrowed further. 

On his part, Loki couldn’t hide the shock on his face. 

Why would Stark do this? Why was he even considering protecting him? 

“He is the god of lies. And you’re willing to trust him and protect him? Shield him from pain?” questioned the titan. “He is not Nebula. It’s in his nature to lie, deceive and betray. You shouldn’t trust him so easily, Stark.”

The human shrugged, eyes turning back on Loki. “He is the scorpion and I’m the frog carrying him across the water,” he said, which made no sense whatsoever to either of the aliens. “But I find myself wanting to do this. When he screamed that other day... he reminded me of someone who screamed for me once, I think.” Thanos’ expression could have been made in stone when Stark turned to him once more. The man snorted and shook his head. “Whatever. Do you agree to my terms?”

Thanos stared at Loki hard and it took everything in the mage not to flee from those eyes. Then he turned back to Stark. “He will be chained and put in the cell across from Nebula. And if he betrays you or hurts you - which he _will_ \- I will deal with him as I see fit.”

Stark smiled brightly at him and Loki had to push down the bile that threatened to come out at the candid and open expression in the mortal’s face. The open _trust_ in those eyes, directed at the Mad Titan, destroyer of worlds... it was sickening.

“Very well,” finally said Thanos, expression somehow softer as he looked down at the human. “I have brought you a present. Your session will wait till we get to planet Wyt by normal means. Meanwhile he will transported to his new cell. Proxima, Corvius.” He called, and Loki had to bite down a snarl as the two children of Thanos walked inside the ship.

“Be gentle with him,” instructed Stark, watching anxiously as they walked inside his room. Something flashed in his eyes again, and he glared at them. “I don’t want you to harm him, intentionally or non.”

Thanos glanced at him for a moment, but both Corvius and Proxima nodded at Stark. Their glares were gone when they turned back to Loki, offering their arms instead of grabbing him like they clearly intended to.

Then he was taken away, Stark watching him with a small smile as he walked away while Thanos’ expression was kept carefully blank the entire time.

+++

The other daughter of Thanos was awake when he was put in his new cell with chains around his feet and his wrists. She watched him carefully as Proxima and Corvius locked him back inside and then marched away.

Loki on his part, tested the strength of the chains and looked around the small room he was locked in. It was just below what the Asgardian cell he had spent a year was, in terms of comfort and facilities. 

“Are you just going to keep staring at me?” he questioned after a few minutes of silent inspection. He looked back up the the daughter of Thanos that had been tracking his every movement from where she was sitting on a bed.

She didn’t move her eyes off him seemingly considering him. “What’s so different about you?”

Loki blinked, slightly irritated. Last time he had seen her, she wasn’t involved in his torture, but had been aware of it. She had not offered him any help. “What?”

“Tony,” she said with surprising familiarity. “He saved you. You’re not the first person I told him I could hear screaming while they were being tortured. He always checks on them when I tell him about them, but he never saves them. Until you.” She tilted her head to the side. “What makes you different from everyone else?”

Loki was aware of the fact that he was not the only one being tortured on the ship. In fact sometimes he wasn’t sure if the screams he was hearing while in that dark dungeon in the ship’s belly were his own or not.

He wasn’t sure if he trusted this Nebula or not. He had heard of her defecting from Thanos’ side, and she was in a cell just like his. Plus, Stark had said that he was ‘protecting’ her too. On the other side... Loki wasn’t known for trusting others.

He pondered her question for a second. “He knows me,” he settled on.

The girl sneered. “You’ve tried to kill him and lead the Chitauri to his home. If anything, he should have left you to rot until you died.”

Loki kept his wince in check, this time. Instead he raised an eyebrow. “And yet, here we are, with him extending me the same deal of protection he has given you.”

Just as he predicted those words made her stop, staring up at him in shock. She opened her mouth to say something when Stark himself appeared, a smile on his face and several hot dishes on his plate. “Hey Nebs, hey Lo,” he greeted like they were all friends meeting each other on the street.

Neither of the prisoners replied, Loki just watching him with suspicion as he put a bowl in his food window and then did the same to Nebula, before sitting down with his back to Nebula’s glass.

He stared at Loki with a frown on his face when he didn’t immediately reach out for it, concern on his face. “Are you not hungry?”

Loki considered for a second the chance of poison in his food. But Thanos was not merciful enough to kill him with something as easy as poison, he decided, and then reached out for the bowl.

Stark flashed him a smile and then turned his attention to Nebula, who was staring at him. “Nebs?”

The girl observed him carefully. “Why did you extend the godling a deal of protection?”

Stark made a face and Loki pretended to be engrossed in his food even as his ears remained listening. “I didn’t want him tortured.”

“You’ve left many people tortured before,” reminded him the girl, and Stark didn’t even wince or look disgusted with himself. “What made him special enough to risk your sanity for?”

Sanity? Loki frowned at his soup, while Stark let out a sigh.

“I don’t know, Blue Meanie. He was… familiar.”

“Because he tried to kill you before?” she asked, and Loki did throw her a glare at that. As much as he wasn’t sure what was Stark’s play right now, he would rather she didn’t give him enough doubts that he decided to give him back to Thanos.

Neither of them were looking at him, Nebula’s intense gaze focused on Stark who was looking in front of himself with almost vacant eyes.

“No,” finally said Stark after a second, expression not clearing. “He was... screaming. Screaming for... me. No, screaming for Thor. It was familiar, I think. He reminded me of,” he frowned a little. “Of someone. I think-”

“Pete,” said Nebula, the spoon in her hand held tight. “He reminded you of Pete, didn’t he?”

Stark blinked up at her, confused. “Pete?”

“Yeah,” she said, nodding too fast. Loki wasn’t sure what was going on, and kept a wary eye on them both. “Peter Parker. You told me about him, remember? Your son.”

Last he heard Stark did not have a son. And if he did, wouldn’t the spawn be Stark too? He wasn’t too familiar with how surnames worked on Earth but considering Stark’s father was Stark too, it should be.

Stark put a hand on his head, blinking unfocused at her. “Son? I don’t have a son.”

“Spider Man,” continued Nebula, putting a hand on the glass. “Do you remember him? Him and Strange were with you on Titan. When we fought Thanos and he took you.”

“I came with him,” reminded her Stark, expression becoming more focused. “He didn’t take me.”

“You were fighting him,” pressed Nebula, not moving her eyes off him. “Why would you go with him if you were fighting him? ”

Stark’s eyes went unfocused once more. “I was fighting him. Why?” He turned to Nebula, like she had all the answer. “Why was I fighting him? Thanos cares for me.”

Instead of refuting that, Nebula kept talking. “Stephen Strange. He gave the time stone for Thanos to spare your life. Thanos wanted you dead and Stephanie did not. He saved you.”

“Stephen Strange,” repeated Stark, multiple expressions flickering across his face. “Stephanie?”

Nebula nodded. “You, Stephanie and Pete went to space together, after Maw attacked Earth, remember? And Rhodey, Pepper, Happy, Harl and Viz were left behind on Earth. Waiting for you to come back.”

Those names meant absolutely nothing to Loki - except Rhodey and Pepper, he was sure the Hawkeye spoke of them when he talked to him about Stark - but Stark’s face went blank for a moment. Nebula held a breath, staring at him.

Then Stark seemed to melt, putting his head on the glass. “Nebula,” he whined, tears appearing in his eyes. Loki stared, transfixed as the alien settled slightly, a heartbroken expression on her face too. “I forgot. I forgot again, I’m so sorry,”

“I know, I know,” she said, nodding as he put his face in his hands. “It’s okay, Tony. It’s not your fault.”

“I bargain for Thanos to leave Earth alone and then I forget about my family,” came the strained words. “How long has it been this time?”

Nebula hesitated for a moment. “I thought you were gone, this time around. That somehow Thanos managed to fully bury you under,” she said instead.

Stark looked up at her and sniffed, tears still in his eyes. “Nebs. Please, I need to know,” he almost begged.

The blue alien looked down at her bowl for a moment before looking back up. “It’s been three terran months since you last broke out,” she said and even Loki watched in shock. Stark let out a whimper, putting a hand in his hair as she spoke again. “And it has been a year and thirteen days since the battle on Titan.”

A year. Stark had been under Thanos’ control for an entire year. For a human, it was shocking that he had survived this entire time.

Stark seemed to only notice him then, blinking slowly at him and wiping the tears away from his face. “Did I get you out because you reminded me of Peter?”

Loki gave Nebula a quick look and when she nodded he turned his attention back on Stark. “Apparently when I was screaming for Thor, I reminded you of him.”

Stark did not give any reaction to Thor’s name, which sort of affirmed what he had been thinking. Whether this was mind control or brainwashing, his feelings for the former Avengers had _not_ been doctored by the titan. Perhaps enhanced and supported, but not caused. 

“That’s not why I would save you,” he said, brown eyes fixed on him. There were still tears waiting to be fall, but he kept himself in check. “You weren’t behind the invasion.”

Loki considered for a second lashing out. He had stayed in a prison in Asgard for a little over than a year in near absolute solitude just because ~~no one asked~~ he did not want anyone to know what had happened to him after he fell in the void.

But it was hard holding on to that pride when Thanos was there on the ship and it was only through Stark’s benevolence that he remained unhurt. He gave a slow nod. “I wasn’t.”

“Thor did not believe me,” said the human, glaring at the space in front of him. “I told him that I thought you brainwashed or something, because your plan didn’t make logical sense, but he didn’t listen to me.”

His brother had over and over again, thought the worst of Loki. Then again, could Loki truly blame him when, the last time they had faced each other before that Loki was crazed with hatred?

“So you felt bad for me?” he asked instead, unimpressed.

Stark held his gaze. “I did. I don’t like watching victims suffer.”

“I’m not innocent,” reminded him the trickster god, unsure of what the mortal was playing at.

He just shrugged. “Neither am I. The question now is, will you sting me, scorpion?”

Again with that metaphor from before that Loki wasn’t sure of the meaning of. “I don’t tend to sting my allies,” he finally said, hoping that this wasn’t a con both of them were playing on him.

Nebula nodded in agreement and Stark’s lips quirked in an humourless smile. “Well that’s nice. I don’t know if I am an ally, though. I’m stuck on this ship and Thanos could decide to use the space stone to get us on Wyt and start my ‘session’,” he said bitterly making a weird gesture with his fingers.

At this Nebula stared at him in confusion. “I haven’t tried to escape or attacked anyone in months. Why-”

“I freed him without asking,” explained the human, a tense expression on his face. 

At their heavy expressions, Loki couldn’t help himself from inquiring, “What’s the ‘session’?” he asked, imitating the gesture Stark made.

Stark actually cracked a more real smile at this, before shaking his head. “Nothing nice.”

The Luphomoid woman spoke up. “Whenever he or I - and now you too - misbehave or break a rule, Thanos forces Tony to watch as he massacres half of an entire population.”

Stark looked at her with a brittle and fearful smile, very much different from the earlier reaction to the same prospect. “I can’t believe I missed you starting to call me Tony.”

“Why?” managed to ask Loki, staring at the human before him in shock. From what both Hawkeye and Thor told him, Stark was not one for violence. He was classified by the first as a ‘civillian, not a soldier’ and by his brother as a ‘warrior by need, not choice’. That wasn’t someone who enjoyed random violence. 

“It makes him more easy for Thanos to influence and pushes him farther down,” explained Nebula, while the human became slightly paler, no doubt remembering what happened last time.

“Not that. Why would you that for me?” asked the trickster, confused and scared at the same time. He didn’t want Stark to take it back, but he wasn’t sure why he would do it either. 

Thanos’ words from earlier rang true in his ears.

_It’s in his nature._

Stark just looked at him for a couple of seconds. “I guess I don’t want you hurt, Reindeer Games. I see you as a victim punished by life for failing when the universe was stacked against you to begin with. You remind me of many at the same time, like Pete and Harley. Victims of circumstances,” his voice broke a little at the names, “ or even Nebula and myself. Betrayed by those you held dear. It wasn’t your fault. Hey, don’t cry,” he added then and Loki hadn’t even seen the tears rolling down his cheeks.

Nebula was looking at him in pity and he furiously wiped those stray tears away. Stark moved until he was standing in front of his glass, and put a hand on it. “Lokes, look at me. I’ll protect you, okay?”

His eyes were wide and trusting, but the dark haired mage just shook his head. “You can’t.”

“I never stopped protecting Nebula. I will my damn hardest to protect you too, okay? I might forget about the few people on Earth who matter to me, but I won’t forget about the few people on this forsaken ship that need me,” his voice was sure. “You’re my friend now. In fact, you can call me Tony too, if you want.” He gave him a grin. “Tony Stark, nice to meet you.”

Loki didn’t smile back. He didn’t believe the human would manage to protect him fully the moment Thanos used the mind stone on him again. He didn’t believe his ‘protection’ would help in any way.

But other than Nebula, who was in a cell, he seemed to be his only possible ally.

“Loki Friggason. Nice to meet you, Anthony.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> poor tony, poor nebula, poor loki. someone save them, they deserve so much better :(  
> loki knows that thanos has the mind stone, so he assumes thanos is using it on tony somehow. nebula and tony don't know thanos has the mindstone, so nebula has her own theory as to how he's making tony forget.  
> the answer is a mix of both: thanos uses the mind stone on tony after his 'sessions' or gives his vibes during their suppers - he's not actively brainwashing him, he's simply making him focus on thanos' 'gentleness' and how 'safe' the ship is and how 'not crazy' his plan is. which makes tony forget about his family no matter how hard nebula tries to make him remember
> 
> do help me with the wandavision thing deadline is next week monday; vote here:
> 
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-prfQuhm5ZHdbvv8ru7tIWDu1WlaZsOFWOZ_fUAeSXM599w/viewform


	7. VII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When it rains, it pours.  
> Tony breaks free from the brainwashing and finds out Thanos has betrayed him too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> voting ends on monday for wandavision situation!  
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-prfQuhm5ZHdbvv8ru7tIWDu1WlaZsOFWOZ_fUAeSXM599w/viewform

**Chapter VII**

It took Loki the better part of a month before he even started to trust that Nebula and St- Anthony didn’t mean him ill or weren’t trying to trick him somehow.

It helped that the day after he was put in the cell, the human returned with absolutely no recollection of their talk about his family. Nebula tried to recreate the conversation they had had the day before, but to no avail. The brunet had just looked at her, confused by her words and changed the topic of conversation when she didn’t let go.

It was really quite horrifying, and Loki felt his heart somewhat ache in sympathy for the mortal. When he had been under the mind stone and the Other’s control, he had had his memories intact, more or less. Twisted in some parts, to make him more compliant, but he didn’t forget about Thor, Odin and his mother.

Sure, at the time he had hated them with a passion, but they lingered in his mind still. 

Another thing that went a long way in convincing him was Anthony’s reaction when he had come by one day and found Nebula wincing in pain as she clutched the cybernetic enhancement in her arm.

The Luphomoid woman hadn’t said it in any words but Loki had realised that her metal arm was giving her some trouble. She kept clutching at it even as she kept her expression mostly blank.

When Anthony had walked up to them with the extra serving, he had immediately noticed that she wasn’t all right and proceeded to demand that someone opened the door glass door for him, despite the alien’s complaints.

“Tony, I can handle it,” she had said, through gritted teeth and yet slightly panicked.

Anthony hadn’t even bothered to reply to that and Loki had simply stared at the two of them as he ate. Nebula kept trying to get him to leave the cell and he wasn’t quite sure why she would do that.

If they wanted to escape at some point, wouldn’t it be counteractive for her to remain malfunctioning? Shouldn’t she try to keep herself at optimum levels at all times?

The answer came the next day. 

Loki had woken up as usual and found Nebula already awake and pacing in her glass cage. He had frowned at her, but refrained himself from asking.

And then the screaming started.

Loki actually startled at that, watching as Nebula punched the glass in anger before falling down on her knees as the screams and begging continued through the speakers placed in both their cells.

It didn’t take him long to figure out that the screaming man was Anthony.

Or remember what the human and the Luphomoid had said happened when he didn’t follow Thanos’ rules.

[“ _Whenever he or I - and now you too - misbehave or break a rule, Thanos forces Tony to watch as he massacres half of an entire population._ ”]

The screaming was agonizing in a manner Loki had not anticipated. He had been in battles before, had heard the pained screams of adversaries defeated and dying, but it came nowhere close to the harrowing pain the sounds Anthony was making made him feel.

It stopped five minutes later and Loki breathed hard, not so surprised to find his whole body shaking. He turned to question Nebula, but the girl had not moved from where she was sitting with her head between her thighs, trying to stop the noise.

She probably felt guilty about being the cause - in part - of this, he figured out. And then a sick feeling came in his stomach as he realised that Thanos might have punished her too, but Anthony had taken responsibility for the two of them. Which meant...

He swallowed and opened his mouth to tell her it was over, and then the screaming started again. Oh, norms. Stark must have fainted or lost his consciousness as he heard him begging it to ‘ _please stop, no more, please, PLEASE’_. Norms.

The whole ordeal lasted close to five hours in which Loki and Nebula could do nothing but try to block out the noise as best as they could and doing a terrible job at it. A part of his brain wondered how many times had Nebula had to go through this and felt his heart soften ever so slightly towards the two of them. Of course she cared about him.

When it was finally over, Nebula stood up with shaky legs and then locked herself in the small cubicle that served as bathroom in their cells. He pretended he didn’t hear her screaming in there and went to lay down on the lumpy covers Anthony had managed to smuggle them.

The mortal was doing this because he didn’t want them to suffer. Because he didn’t want Thanos to lay hand on either of them. Despite the fact that they might be able to survive physical harm - due to their physiologies - while his mind was broken over and over as he was forced to witness the atrocities. His mind which was, at least while he was still in Midgard, one of his most prized weapons.

Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist; _genius_ first.

‘Losing his sanity’, had said Nebula. 

The description was unfortunately very apt.

Anthony came by two days after the whole ordeal, horribly pale and shaky, but with a soft smile. When Nebula demanded to know if he was all right, Loki couldn’t physically stop himself from throwing up when the human told them about how ‘kind and gentle’ Thanos had been with him as he nursed him back to health.

Anthony had frowned at that and even tried to walk in Loki’s cell to check on him, which both of them had managed to beg him not to do somehow. He had looked confused by their reaction, and that was when Loki decided that he would do anything he could to not cause the mortal any further pain.

Because even with the black seed of hatred growing in his heart, Anthony Stark was _good._ Here he was, unable to eat and shaky beyond reason, with a sore throat and at the very least a migraine, and he was thinking of Nebula and Loki’s health.

In all the centuries he had lived, only Frigga had treated him with such selflessness. 

Not that he had stopped dreaming about a possible escape of course. It was all he could think about when Nebula was silent in her cell and Anthony wasn’t around, when he was left alone with his thoughts and was too afraid of falling asleep. 

As the weeks and months dragged by, some sort of relationship started to form between him and Nebula, in which they exchanged as much information between the two of them as they could.

“Thanos never comes in this part of the ship,” she confessed at one point. “I’m not super sure as to why, but the closest to Thanos that I’ve been in almost a year and half is when he sends Proxima, Corvius or Obsidian to just glare. Though he hasn’t sent them ever since you showed up.”

“Why did he send them?” questioned Loki, slightly confused. 

The girl shook her head. “I am not sure. Sometimes I believe he wants them to see what could happen to them if they disobey his orders but that wouldn’t make sense, considering it’s only Tony’s words that keep me here safe. With the way Thanos has been doing his best to turn him into a sociopath and the way he seems to despise the other _children_ ,” she sneered the word, “he wouldn’t show them the same clemency.”

“Why _does_ he hate them?” Loki had been thinking about it ever since that first day. Tony had been pretty calm when he was around the titan, but the moment Corvius and Proxima had approached Loki, something had shifted in the man’s eyes. “Surely if he cares,” and now it was his turn to make a face, “about Thanos then he should care for his children too.”

She had no response to that.

They also discussed multiple plans of escape among them, trying to use coded words as much as they could.

“I can always detect when the plate is not full,” told him Nebula. “I can usually tell what other food it needs.”

_I can always tell when Thanos is no longer on the ship. Or who has left with them._

“The problem is getting the plate,” agreed Loki, glaring at the ceiling.

_The problem is communicating that to Anthony._

“And sometimes you get it and it’s broken.”

_Or breaking through Anthony._

Because an Anthony that did not remember his family was not an Anthony that would be willing to escape or help them with the escape in any way. He might, decide to help _them_ flee if they were lucky, but he wouldn’t escape with them.

And both the ex assassin and selfish god had found that they would not be able to go anywhere without him. He had wormed his way into their hearts and there was no going back from this. Loki loved his brother dearly, but he would be hard pressed to leave Anthony’s side now.

Loki had always found him interesting, ever since that day he had offered him a drink like they were equals, even though they were enemies. And when he was impersonating Odin on the throne, the tales involving Anthony had always been the most amusing in his opinion - though Thor preferred tales of him and the Captain.

(more than once Thor had claimed to ‘Odin’ that Anthony reminded him of Loki, much to Loki’s internal amusement, bafflement, offense and curiosity. Thor had even called him a ‘silvertongue’ in the making)

Nebula, he wasn’t quite sure what relationship was between her and the brunet. She didn’t seem to be in love with him, but she obviously cared very much about him. She had explained, in stilted words, how he had saved her at the beginning, despite her not doing anything to earn that and the kindness he had shown her.

If he had to endeavour a guess, he’d say that it had been a long time since anyone that wasn’t her sister had shown her that courtesy. Of course, having something like that in your reach and then taken away just as you were beginning to accept it was not nice. She said that she owed him a debt for saving her, but Loki would go ahead and guess she had no intention of leaving his side either if - when - they manage to get out.

(he wondered, more than once, if she saw him as some sort of parental figure. If the stories she told him - at the very beginning - on Peter and Harley, Jarvis, Friday and Vision, DUME, U and Butterfingers, made her wish she had fallen in his hands, somehow, instead of falling in Thanos’)

(it made _him_ wish he had been banished to Earth with Thor, back then and managed to find him)

“Why the long faces?” asked Anthony later that day when he approached their cells. “Is something the matter?”

Nebula shook her head minutely, accepting the plate he put through her window with a little sigh.

They were given food each morning, but it was really the minimum necessary for them to survive. Probably to keep them weak, which was working. If it wasn’t for Anthony’s insistence in sneaking them food every day he came to visit them, Loki sufficed they would be in a much worse state than the one they were in right then.

Accepting the small serving of meat made him miss the days where Volstagg would secure a huge serving of fasan and other assorted meat every time there was a large feast. Norms, he had never thought the day would come where he would miss Thor’s four idiot friends. He would take their mocking any day if it meant he was as far away from this ship as possible.

“Lokes?” asked Anthony, tone concerned. “Are you okay?”

The green eyed mage nodded, rubbing a hand over his face. “Yeah. Just… homesick,” he looked at the man before him, “This is your first time in space. Don’t you ever miss Earth?”

Anthony looked at him like he had grown another head. “ _Miss_ Earth?” He snorted, shaking his head. “Miss being everyone’s scapegoat at any given time, with the world looking for any reason in the world to blame me even if I had absolutely _nothing_ to do with it? There is nothing left for me on Earth except betrayal.”

“And your family,” tried Nebula, but it was a half assessed attempt if anything. It had been now four months since Anthony had manage to break through, and it was pretty obvious she was losing hope. “That’s why you spared it.”

“It seemed important at the time,” acquiesced the mortal, with a shrug. “I’m sure there are some decent people there.”

“Including your children and your creations,” agreed Loki, then paused. “Though I suppose one of them is dead anyway, now.”

Anthony gave him a frown. “What are you talking about?”

He had heard some of Anthony’s story from Nebula. She had talked to him about the man’s family, but mostly about his children and creations. About his oldest yet youngest child/creation who had left him because he loved a witch who hated Anthony. About how much, despite the pain it obviously caused him and despite how much of a betrayal it felt like, Anthony still cared for him.

“Vision, the being with the mind stone. He is dead, is he not?” 

He clearly recalled his brother and the beast’s horror at the mind stone in the glove, which clearly meant that without it the creature would be dead.

The human kept frowning at him in confusion while Nebula’s eyes widened in realisation. “How many stones does Thanos have right now?”

“Four-”

“Five.” 

Said both of them at the same time.

Anthony looked at him in confusion. “What are you talking about? Thanos only has four stones: time, space, power and reality.”

“He has the mind stone too,” vehemently said the mage, finally realising what was going on. “He even used it on me my first day on here.”

“But that makes no sense,” managed Anthony, putting a hand on his forehead and wincing. “The mind stone is on Earth, and Thanos has promised he wouldn’t go on Earth. Plus I haven’t seen it on him.”

He could see it, the same expression on the mortal’s face as the first day he was in the cell. He was on the verge of tipping over, on the verge of coming back. But Loki had no idea how to convince him, no idea of what to offer as proof and -

“The reality stone,” whispered Nebula, eyes wide in realisation. “He can use the reality stone to make it look like his gauntlet is missing the two stones instead of the one.” She turned to the human again. “Tony he killed Viz.”

"Viz?" Anthony’s breathing was shallow now and his hand was shaking slightly. “No. No, he can’t. He _promised_.” His eyes narrowed on Loki. “You’re a scorpion.”

He had managed to extract the story of the frog and the scorpion, during the past four months. 

[ _“What did you mean, when you said I was a scorpion, that very first day?”_

_Anthony had looked at him in confusion. “A scorpion?”_

_“Yeah. You said I was a scorpion, and you were the frog carrying me across the pond.”_

_The mortal snorted, eyes lighting up. “Oh it’s a story I think my butler once read me. There is a scorpion, who obviously, cannot swim. So it asks a frog to carry it across the river by carrying it on its back._

_“The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung by the scorpion, but the scorpion convinces him to do it. It tells the frog, ‘If I stung you, then we will both drown.’_

_“So the frog accepts, and starts swimming with the scorpion on its back. However, halfway through the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway._

_“The frog asks the scorpion, as they’re drowning, ‘You fool! You doomed us both! Why would you sting me, despite knowing the consequences?’_

_“And the scorpion replies, ‘I couldn’t help it. It’s in my nature.”_ ]

The story had resonated with him. Everyone who had ever known him would have put their hands on fire and sworn that Loki was the scorpion.

But Loki wasn’t the scorpion. Loki wanted to live. He had always wanted to live, he had always done his best to _survive_.

He looked at Anthony straight in the eyes. “You might believe me to be a scorpion, but the real scorpion is Thanos and, deep down, you’ve known this, Anthony. You’ve always known this. And...” he hesitated for a second. “I can show you.”

His seidr had been growing steadily over the past few months. While the collar on his neck would never allow him to use his powers properly, there were other things he could do with it. Similarly with how Thor could make sparks fly with his fingers even without the hammer - back when he was not aware of his real powers - there were little tricks Loki could pull too.

It was risky, sure. But if Anthony figured out that Thanos had _lied_ and betrayed him too, then his trust in the titan was gone. Then no matter what he did, Tony wouldn’t forget the sting of the betrayal. Not with the way the titan had cultivated a field of sociopathy and a lack of empathy for everything and everyone who dared to turn their back on him.

Unless Thanos decided to use the mind stone on the human. And while they couldn’t rule it out, it didn’t seem like the Titan wanted to make him a mindless partner at his side.

But it didn’t matter because the human blinked rapidly a couple of times and shook his head. “No. You’re lying,” he decided, taking a step back.

“Anthony,” he tried, but it was too late.

The man was gone.

+++

Tony wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself.

He had allowed himself to trust Loki, and for some reason the god had tried to lie to him. To manipulate him.

 _Had he_?

He licked his lips, a headache building behind his eyelids. Why would Thanos lie? He had never lied to him to him so far. He had done everything Tony had asked him. It made no sense that he would go behind his words now.

_Didn’t it?_

It didn’t. Thanos didn’t lie to him. But again, he had thought _Rogers_ didn’t lie to him either. There were many people Tony had believed would never lie to him and then they did. They always did.

_Yes. They always lied and left, those you hold dear._

No, he shook his head, the pain building in his head. Thanos wouldn’t. He _wouldn’t_.

 _Why? Why_ wouldn’t _he?_

Because... Because he was dear to Thanos. Thanos wanted him at his side, so that together they could find the soul stone and fix the Universe. He cared about Tony in a manner no one else had ever done before _(no one?)._ He valued him. Tony was an asset, he was someone Thanos had come to trust and in turn, he was someone who had come to trust the titan.

Because Thanos had opened his eyes and showed him the Universe and told him all of it would be his the moment he _learnt_. The moment he left behind foolish sentiment and embraced his true destiny. And Tony wanted to learn, wanted to drown in the knowledge the titan wanted to impart on him.

because if Thanos had lied then _he_ could have been in danger. _He_ could have been dead. _They_ could have been dead.

_Who is they?_

_Next time, you ride with me_ . A figure stuck on his suit as he flew around. _We’re connected._ ‘Proof that Tony Stark has a heart’. _Protecting your reality, douchebag._ Two cars racing together in an empty road.

Tony whimpered, clutching his head in his hands and crouching on his knees. Why was he arguing with himself and why did _hurt_ so much?

_Jarvis, you up? For you, sir, always._

_I’ve got it, Boss. That’s my girl Friday._

Purple and orange code flashing around in his eyes. Capable of learning? Sentient, knowing. They chose to stay. They never left. Could they leave? Primary protocol.

_Where to, Boss? Take me home, Happy._

_Platypus. Tones._

So much pain. Matching hospital gowns. The brightest light, shining one moment and then crashing to the ground. Disappointed eyes that claimed to leave but never left. Why? They should have left. Who? Fun vee and fast cars.

_Asshole! Douchebag!_

_Will that be all Mr Stark? That’ll be all, Ms Potts._

Love. They left. They really left but then they came back. Heels on the marble and a high ponytail. A red cape and a fun-stache. Please don’t go. But they went.

“Stark?” came a gentle rumble and a shiver ran down his back even as he found himself reaching towards the source of the voice.

“Thanos?” he managed, the voice in his head _screaming_ at him to get away even as his body seemed to relax under the Titan’s huge hand.

_No! He's a monster!_

No. Thanos was safe. Thanos cared about him. He wanted to open Tony's eyes, wanted to give him the Universe on a platter. Wanted Tony to grow a spine and go after Earth himself. Wanted him to destroy those who hurt him by his own hand, so that he could be finally free.

_Your family is on Earth. Don't let him do this. Don't let him get to you!_

Get to him? Tony _wanted_ to go to Thanos. Thanos was calm. Thanos was safe. Thanos would protect him.

“What has happened, dear one? Proxima claimed you’ve been whispering to yourself for the past few moments,” Thanos’ voice was kind, but Tony felt a surge of absolute **loathing** going through his body at the name. Thanos’ family that he got to keep while Tony’s...

 _Family_.

Family?

Pete, Peter. Viz, Vision. Harls, Harley.

_Thank you, Mr Stark! Call me Tony, Mr Stark was my father._

_Who am I? You’re the Vision._

_Harley, and you are? The Mechanic._

His babies. His children in everything but blood.

It took everything in himself not to crawl away from the titan’s embrace, not to scream or throw up as he emerged from the cage in his own mind. The cage where he was Thanos’ glorified housewife and everything the titan did seemed okay. The cage Thanos kept him in, filled with self destructive thoughts and vengeance and the taste of blood. Filled with Earth burning and everyone who had ever dared stand against him dead at his feet.

“I had an anxiety attack,” he lied, not moving from Thanos’ - he nearly threw up in his mouth - lap.

He could hear Thanos’ frown. “I am unsure as to what that is.”

Just as the human had expected. He hummed, pretending every inch of him wasn’t screaming at the contact between the two of them, the buzzing in his head somehow calmer than usual. “It’s like a sudden nightmare in your own mind. Can I confide in you?”

“Of course, dear one,” said the other, the hand with the gauntlet patting his head.

“I dreamt that you killed my kid,” he whispered, trying to see any tensing in the other being, any sign that he was lying.

He found none. “I would never do that to you,” he assured him and the drowsy part of him, the part that found comfort in Thanos tried to pull him back. He resisted.

“Even if my kid betrayed me?” he asked again, thinking back to Thanos’ behaviour towards Nebula. His obstinate refusal to see her, content to let her rot for having dared to go against him.

There. Minute, and if Tony had not been looking for it, he might have missed.

Might have missed the way Thanos’ hand faltered in its movements over his head for a couple seconds.

 _LIAR_!, roared a voice in his head. He did it. He **betrayed** him.

“You’re always willing to forgive,” said Thanos and it was such a blatant non answer that Tony wanted to scream. But he had to pretend, he had to keep acting like nothing was wrong, like he was still under. Like he was still Thanos’ meek domesticated pet.

“Not always,” he said instead, feeling a surge of hot anger in his chest. He would have Thanos' head on a stick. He would have him dead at his feet right next to Rogers. He would have him begging to be left alive. “You taught me that. Never forgive someone who betrayed you.”

Never forgive Thanos.

Thanos lifted his head up by his chin, a smile on his face even as his eyes remained searching. “Excellent, my dear. I am very proud of you for learning your lessons.”

 _Be_ _proud_ , he hissed in his head. _You created the man who is going to kill you and enjoy it._

 _If you don't forget again,_ said another voice in his head.

Tony’s mask stayed in place as he fluttered his eyelashes and gave a little smile, eyes going down on the gauntlet.

It was the usual gauntlet with only four stones and for a second Tony faltered. Was Loki manipulating him somehow? Was he wrong despite all of it? It was the same gauntlet, with the same stones, with the same red shining stone in the middle -

Red shining stone.

Red _shining_ stone.

The buzzing seemed to stop, a red tasting voice saying ‘ _I am awake_ ’, in his brain.

Tony sat up slowly, fury churning in his chest. 

The red stone, the aether. The reality stone.

Able to change matter, like when it had encased his Peter in stone. And now as it hid the mind stone from his sight, the only thing betraying his usage the way it kept twinkling, like it was winking at him.

And Tony had never really felt a need to check on the glove of destiny in the past year, had he? He had simply... not looked. Not checked. 

Like a compulsion of _not_ looking had been put in his head.

_Kill him. Kill him!_

Tony had no qualms believing that, while not having used it directly to mind control him, Thanos had not used to mind stone to keep him from checking the gauntlet. He hated to say it but it was the sort of thing he would have done.

Vision was dead.

His baby boy, his youngest half AI. Dead. 

The last part of JARVIS’ code.

But he couldn’t break now, he couldn’t do what he did in Siberia. What Quill did on Titan. He couldn’t let his grief overwhelm him. Because Thanos was stronger than him and if he put him in that chair again, then all of this would have been for nothing. He would forget everything again.

So he stayed there for a little while longer, pretending to take comfort in the titan’s hold, pretending he didn’t want to kill him more than he had in his entire life. 

He stayed, until he could pretend an urge to check on Loki and Nebula, stemmed from the remaining anxiety.

“I wouldn’t hurt them,” assured him Thanos, even as he allowed him back on his feet. “I haven’t even gone to see them since they moved in.”

Moved in.

Since _he_ kidnapped them and stopped torturing them.

“I know,” he assured, a 2007-Tony style smile on his face. “Which you should, by the way. She’s still your daughter,” he continued, adding to what he could remember was an on going debate between the two of them. He had to sell it. “But I still want to check on them. Seeing them always calms me down.”

Thanos nodded at him, patting his head again and Tony almost flinched this time. Instead he buried his nails into his palm, keeping his expression the same until Thanos let go of him.

He couldn’t quite walk away keeping Thanos behind him, and he hoped it didn’t look suspicious that he basically walked backwards and waved him goodbye. The twinkling of the aether seemed to be mocking him even as Thanos bemusedly waved back.

He didn’t run back to the cells, stopping by his bedroom to pick up the glove he had swiped away from Nahiri in one of his ‘awake’ moments. It held her fingerprints on it and, despite having used it several times to sneak in to Nebula’s cell without permission, Thanos had never had it removed.

Then again every session made Tony more easily manageable, he thought, with a disgusted snarl on his face. Of course letting him keep it meant that Tony would very probably use it again, which would end with him in another ‘session’. 

“Anthony?” called Loki, standing up in surprise as he strode back between their cells. He looked at him warily, probably due to his earlier abrupt departure and the glare he was sporting on his face.

“You said you could show me something, earlier,” he said, jaw clenched. “What could you show me?”

“You’re back,” realised Nebula, while Loki look at him still worried.

“I’ve tried it only once before,” said Loki clearly nervous.

For a god that was millennia old, he reminded Tony a lot of Harley and Peter. 

And made him wonder if time relativity was a thing.

“With the Valkyrie. She kept her memories of her past deeply buried in herself. I think that you are doing the same thing, without really knowing. Each time you have a session or the longer you spend with Thanos’ manipulative words, the deeper your memories are hidden away.”

“You don’t think he’s using the mind stone,” his beautiful, _young,_ Vision. Killed. His stone _ripped_ away from him. 

“No,” he shook his head. “You’re too clear for that. Too _you_.”

_Do it._

Tony pulled the glove over his hand and pressed his hand on the glass, ignoring Nebula’s gasp. “Do it.”

“Anthony, I…” tried Loki, eyes slightly panicked. “You’re human, it might not-”

“I don’t have anything to lose anymore,” he told him, eyes shining brilliantly and with a twinge of crazed in them. “I don’t know if I would be able to come back again. I don’t think I’d be able to _want_ to come back again,”

To come back, knowing that _his_ _kid_ was dead.

Loki kept his eyes on him searching for something in them that Tony wasn’t sure was there anymore.

“Very well,” finally said the god. He pulled up his chained hands and kept eye contact with Tony. “This might hurt.”

He put two cold fingers on Tony’s forehead.

For a few seconds, nothing happened.

Then everything went orange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the powermove loki used on the valkyrie is so powerful, why the hell did he not use it more often?!?!
> 
> also i fucking hate the mcu for downplaying how powerful loki truly is. He is shown as smart and cunning from the first movie, and he is the most powerful mage in the galaxy. And yet you have him falling for Strange's trick twice?! when in the first movie he played thor like a fiddle using holograms? you have my boy attacking thanos front on with a kitchen knife?!!?! when he has magic?!?!? when thanos had deadass forgotten about him and was about to leave the ship without even killing him?? Infinity War's worst tactics were making unconquerable and killing Loki that easily. stupid ass movie tbh.
> 
> anyway, finally tony is doing something. let's hope they manage to escape, right? also, finally they all have all the information, right? ahah. right.
> 
> voting: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-prfQuhm5ZHdbvv8ru7tIWDu1WlaZsOFWOZ_fUAeSXM599w/viewform


	8. VIII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony remembers.
> 
> He remembers everything (for better or for worse).
> 
> But one thing is clear: Thanos must die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wtffff i thought i posted yesterday but loona did a thing and i totally didn't im sowwy
> 
> howard stark's A+ Parenting as usual
> 
> i know i said ten chapters and then eleven but i promise you, no more than twelve

**Chapter VIII**

One second Tony was standing on Thanos’ ship staring at Loki’s green eyes, and the next there was a flash of orange and arc reactor blue, and he was laying in a pool of warm water.

He blinked up at a sky that was impossibly orange despite no evidence of a sun anywhere, and he slowly sat up, the warm water rippling around as he moved.

Where was he? Did Loki do this?

But even as he wondered that, he shook his head. This was different. It didn’t  _ feel  _ like Loki’s magic, his seidr. He wasn’t exactly sure  _ when  _ he had learned what Loki’s magic felt like, but this really didn’t feel like it. Loki’s magic was cold and grass green, not warm orange, not tangerine.

Then where was he?

“Why, in your own soul, of course,” came a gentle and familiar voice.

Tony’s head snapped towards it and where before there had only been water, Pepper was standing. Beautiful Pepper, with her fiery red hair and blue eyes and suit that didn’t seem to be wet despite her standing in the same water he was half sitting in. His Pepper-

He narrowed his eyes at her. “You are not Pepper.”

The not-Pepper smiled at his words. “No, I’m not,” she agreed, and then offered him her hand.

Tony reached out for the hand without thinking too much about it. She was not his Pepper and he did not even  _ know  _ her. But something in his gut was telling him he could trust her. 

After all, she could have tried to trick him and lied about not being Pepper, but she hadn’t. They hadn’t.

“Who are you?” he asked, once he was standing. He let go of her hand and ran a hand through his wet hair. Only to find that it wasn’t wet. A quick check of his clothing brought forth the same conclusion. “What the hell?”

“I am your guide,” told him not Pepper, starting to walk away. “Do you believe in soulmates?”

Tony immediately followed her, putting the thought of the not wet water out of his mind for the time being and frowning slightly at her. “Not really,” because if soulmates existed, then there was, out there, someone who was Pepper’s better half. The person destined to be with her, the person who  _ deserved  _ her. And that wasn’t a nice thought. “What do I call you?”

“You can call me what you want,” said not Pepper, glancing at him with something akin mirth dancing in her eyes. “I am you, after all. Or perhaps, part of you.”

“What are you,” he started asking, but then she - they? - was speaking again.

“You should be dead, Anthony Edward Stark.”

No one had full on middle named him since his mother. It was unnerving how well this stranger wearing Pepper’s voice could do it.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Is this a death threat?"

Not-Pepper shook her head, still looking at him, and he huffed. Because, she was right, of course. “I should have died in that cave in Afghanistan.”

Not-Pepper gave him a little smile, and then the water rippled around them. Tony looked down at it and saw himself.

But it wasn’t a reflection. It was a memory.

A memory of himself seen by the eyes of someone else.

He was sitting on a rock on Titan, with Thanos’ figure looming over him. The Titan had gotten a hold of his suit and stabbed him with it.

Tony remembered the pain, and the slight hysteria and irony he had felt at the moment. Dying by a weapon of his own making. Afghanistan part two: the reckoning. He never seemed to learn.

He did not, however, recall the way the injury and his eyes had pulsed orange as Strange handed Thanos the time stone. Nor the way it kept pulsating orange even after he had used the cooling nanobots on it.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t had a chance to disinfect or clean the wound properly, after. He was no doctor of medicine, but even he was aware that after an injury like that, the chances of infection were almost absolute. It was a weapon made out of nanobots that he had used to fight a Titan and that had part of said Titan’s blood, dust and bacteria on it. That injury should have gotten infected and killed him.

The water rippled again.

This time, he was watching himself laying on a hospital bed, eyes closed while a number of doctors in blue clothing was shuffling all around him, loud and in a hurry.

He knew what this was, even though he had not been awake for most of it.

The aftermath of Siberia.

Tony knew perfectly well that, in contrast with some of his teammates, he was on the smaller side. But it was one thing knowing that and seeing how the hospital bed seemed to be swallowing him whole.

The doctors around seemed to grow a little more frantic as the heartbeat monitor started to slow down. And then, just as the machine seemed to go silent, a bright orange light seemed to envelop his chest and his heart restarted once more.

Later Pepper had told him that his heart had stopped three times on the operating table.

Another ripple of the water and now he was laying on the ground, completely still and immobile.

Around him rubble and destruction, and three figures standing over his supposedly dead body.

Tony watched as Thor ripped his mask off his face, fingers hesitating over his body, unsure of what he was supposed to do with a human who wasn’t breathing, probably. Rogers was just looking down at him with a sad expression, most likely believing him already dead.

Then the Hulk roared in anguish and the orange light fully enveloped him once more, and Tony’s eyes flew open, an almost panicked “What the  _ hell _ ?” leaving his lips.

There was more. Every time the water rippled, it showed a memory farther back of Tony almost dying, of Tony almost not making it.

It was slightly terrifying to watch how many times he almost died, how many times the orange light saved his life. Twice during the whole palladium poisoning episode; when he blew up Stane with the Arc Reactor; when Stane ripped out his chest reactor; four times in Afghanistan.

And even before then: almost dead by overdose three times, almost died when they pumped his stomach back in his twenties, almost died in three kidnappings when he was a teenager.

He almost died at four years old, when his father pushed him out of the way and he fell down the stairs hitting his head on a corner of the step. That memory had been particularly shocking: watching as his father stilled at the top of the stairs, eyes wide and panicked as he looked down at his injured son, frozen. Hadn’t it been for the orange light and Jarvis hearing the sound and rushing towards his younger self, Tony would have died then.

The water rippled one more time, and Tony frowned.

This time he was looking down at his mother’s room, watching as she laid on the bed while doctors and Ana Jarvis were helping her deliver. 

She looked so young. Much younger than in any memory Tony had of her, almost like in the pictures she used to show him. Her forehead was drenched in sweat and her eyes were terrified and in pain, but there was a strength and fire in them that Tony did not recall ever seeing. By the time he was old enough to remember what his mother looked like, her eyes were almost always dulled by pills or barely recognisable behind the shades she wore everywhere - a trait Tony inherited.

When he was finally born, however, he didn’t cry. He didn’t make a sound as Ana held him all gross looking, and he appeared impossibly still.

“No,” begged his mom, eyes filling with tears. “Please no. Please,”

Howard was in the doorway. Tony blinked at the older man in surprise. For as long as he could remember, his mother had told him that his father had not been there when she had given birth to him. Howard had never corrected her.

But there he was, standing in the doorway, face pale and expression shuttered. But his mouth was moving, even as Maria’s sobs became slightly louder and Ana Jarvis’ eyes turned into pity. 

Tony found himself moving closer to the man.

He felt a little off balance when he heard what the man was muttering. “Come on Anthony,” was saying Howard, eyes hard. “Come on, son. Come on. You can do it.”

Tony saw an orange stone appear from the ceiling and fall directly into his chest, and noiselessly gasped. The orange light. From the orange stone.

Then the baby let out a piercing wail, and all the medical and technical equipment in the house turned on at the same time.

“Oh my god,” sobbed his mother, almost falling backwards on the bed. “He’s? He’s?”

“Yes,” let out Ana, whispering a prayer as she slowly moved towards the mother. “He’s alive, miss. He’s beloved by God, it’s a miracle.”

_ Not a miracle _ , decided Tony, not surprised that Howard had disappeared towards his lab once more. The more memories he was given of his father Howard, the more confused he felt about the man, honestly.

He looked away from the water and back to the Not-Pepper. “That was not a miracle.”

Not Pepper gave him a benevolent look. “Depends what you consider a miracle.”

“You are the Soul Stone.” He then said, holding in a breath when not Pepper turned to him with a wider smile and eyes shining bright orange.

“ _ We  _ are the soul stone, Tony Stark. I am you, remember?”

And wasn’t that a mind fucking thought. What she - he? they? - a parasite? Except, they was protecting him. Had been protecting him all his life.

“Why me?” he found himself asking. The only other infinity stone he heard had inhabited a body was the reality stone. And that had nearly killed Jane Foster. Why was he... different? Why did he not know it before? Why didn’t Thor?

Not Pe- The Soul Stone gazed at the forever orange sky with a far away expression. “I had been asleep on Vormir for a very long time, when I heard my sisters wake. Time and time again one of us has inhabited someone; you think the Mad Titan was the first to decide to collect us all?” She shook her head. “45 terran years ago, my brother fell in the Mad Titan’s hand and felt the wretchedness in his mind.”

“The mind stone,” he guessed and the Soul Stone nodded. “I didn’t realise you guys had morals.” 

The Soul Stone gave him another of those little smiles. “I don’t suppose we do, no. But we are capable of learning.”

Tony narrowed his eyes. “You’re sentient.”

“You can use that term if you wish,” amicably agreed the Soul Stone, tilting her head in acquiesce. Tony didn’t say anything further, and the Soul Stone continued narrating. “When my brother felt Thanos’ full intentions, he sent a signal to all of us. And the forever sleeping Space and the forever silent Time cried out together, at once. They called me from Vormir. And sent me to you.”

“But why me?” wondered Tony, crossing his arms as if he felt cold. There was nothing special about him.

“There is plenty special about you, Tony Stark,” told him the Soul Stone, with a small smile. Did he say that aloud or was she listening to his thoughts? “You weren’t just  _ my  _ choice. Space and Time gave me when and where, and I found you. You are special. You’ve always been special.”

There was a lot Tony could say about that absurd sentence, but Soul Stone didn’t give him a chance. “You were born with the ability to sense the soul in those who do not have them. The ability to  _ create _ souls.”

“Are you talking about my AIs?” Had he been outside, in his own body, he would have felt a lump in his throat. 

Soul Stone nodded once. “There is more than that. You have been special for a long time,” she told him, and the water rippled once more.

Tony watched as a younger version of himself - probably 2 or 3 years old - stood next to his mother as she and Howard argued about something - what an easy and familiar sight.

His younger self was growing bored and antsy with the ignoring and shouting match he was presented with, and Tony watched with almost fascination the tantrum building up.

The lights in the house started flickering just as baby Tony bursted into tears, several of the machinery all around the home acting up and crazier the harder Tony started to cry.

“What the hell?” complained Howard, moving towards the kitchen, while a strange expression passed his mother’s face.

The woman glanced around to make sure her husband was gone, before she settled on the floor next to Tony, a stern and almost afraid expression on her face. “Tony? Anthony, amore mio, stop that. Stop doing that to the machines,” she whispered urgently, caressing his hair and letting out soothing noise.

Older Tony had guessed as much, but it was a little weird to see the various appliances calm down and turn back off as baby Tony sniffed and calmed down in his mother’s embrace.

He could control technological appliances with... his emotions? But nothing of the sort had ever happened to him. He would have noticed if it had.

Before he could question the Soul Stone there was another ripple. In this one Tony looked around the same age as before, but he was laying asleep in his bed.

His mother was standing at the door with Jarvis, both of them watching a woman he had never seen before bent over his body. The woman was bald and wearing what looked like orange monk clothing. She seemed to ooze calm and tranquillity, but her expression was surprised.

Her hands still on baby Tony’s chest, she turned to face Jarvis and his mom. “You are correct. There is a great deal of power in this boy,” she said, her eyes almost excited. “His soul is the brightest I have had the pleasure of encountering in a very long time.”

She had a necklace around her neck that Tony was quite sure he had seen before. Recently too.

His mother pursed her lips. “Can you... take it from him?”

The monk - monkress? - shook her head. “To do so would be to kill him,” she said, and Maria let out a sigh, putting her hands in her hair.

She suddenly looked much older than she had in the last ripple. “If Howard figures this out - and if it continues, he  _ will  _ \- he’s going to hurt him, I know. He’s going to try and research him, turn him into a lab rat. I-”

The bald woman seemed to think for a few seconds as Jarvis tried to calm down Maria, and then she spoke again. “I cannot take it from him, but I can. Suppress it. Let it go dormant. Push down his memories of his powers.” 

She kept talking but Tony looked back up at the Soul Stone, finally remembering. “She’s like a... witch. Like Stephen. That’s the time stone around her neck.”

The Soul Stone smiled, the water vision disappearing. “The previous Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One. The one who hid your powers from you.”

“Then how come I am seeing you and remembering you now?” he questioned, nervous all of a sudden. “Am I dying?”

Soul Stone shook their head. “No. But the one who showed you your own memories is.”

Tony’s head snapped up in shock. “What? What’s wrong with Loki?”

For the first time the Soul Stone showed something other than passivity in her expression. She showed absolute fury and wasn’t that a weird expression to see on Pepper. “Thanos.”

One word.

One word and the whole world around Tony went from peach orange to flame orange.

Thanos.

The murdering lying psychopath who took him from his family. 

Who corrupted a stone so bad it managed to kill his then youngest AI.

And then proceeded to kill what was left of him, proceeded to kill his  _ youngest yet, _ Vision. Vision who was just three years old and was now dead.

The monster who hurt Nebula, who hurt Loki. Because they were  _ his  _ now, they were his family and Loki might be centuries older than him but right now he was under Tony’s care. 

The abomination who killed his own despite declaring to ‘love’ them. 

“He’ll die,” he announced, looking back at the Soul Stone.

The smile not Pepper was giving him was so dark, angry and yet  _ so Pepper  _ that for a moment, he forgot how to breathe.

“You are one of us, Tony Stark,” told him the Soul Stone, and everything started evaporating around him. “You are a stone. You are me and I am you. Tonight, Thanos will die.

“Wake up, Merchant. Wake up, Iron Man.”

Iron Man: yes. Merchant of Death: yes. Tony Stark: yes.

Tony smiled.

* * *

Tony’s eyes snapped open, blue and orange battling inside of his brown eyes.

The entire ship was  _ alive _ . Alive in a way Tony had not seen or felt before.

From the engines to the navigation system, everything was trying to talk to him, everything was screaming and talking over each other to connect with him.

The mechanisms behind the cell doors were whispering to him their secrets, and the weapons around the ship were singing to him like sirens. 

Codes and data tingled against his consciousness, mechanisms throwing their everything against him.

The nanobots in his reactors were realigning themselves, fixing all the previous mistakes without him thinking about it. Telling him suggestions and asking him what to do.

So much was happening at once and Tony's head hurt more than a little. It was overwhelming, in a way, going from having his own thoughts to having entire conversations with inanimate objects in his mind. It was making it very hard for him to focus.

Everything seemed to want to connect to him.

And Power (‘ _ I don’t want to hurt anyone else. I just want to be left alone, I just want to go to sleep’ _ ) was breaking something. Or someone.

He took all of this in in less than one second.

“Tony!” called out Nebula’s voice.

The man finally sat up, looking past Proxima and Corvius to where Nebula was standing. The machinery in her body was also calling to him, and he saw a fleeting confusion in her face as some of the whirring calmed down.

“Tony, he has Loki! He’s killing him!”

Corvius growled at her, while Proxima kept her eyes on Tony, her expression blank. “Loki attacked you and almost killed you. Thanos decided that he voided the terms of-”

One step and Tony was in front of the two Children of Thanos, his hands on their chests. He didn’t know what compelled him to do it, but he just  _ knew  _ what he had to do. He just knew what would happen.

He saw the confusion in their eyes as they looked at him, the flinch in both of them when their dark eyes met his orange ones. 

But they never stood a chance. They didn’t even manage to open their mouths before Tony was  _ pulling  _ and their souls were being taken from their bodies, leaving them dead on the floor.

Nebula let out a gasp at that, watching as her ‘siblings’ slumped on the ground. She looked back up at him, expression suddenly guarded. “How?”

Was she now afraid of him? Would she leave him too, like everyone else did?

He ignored the pain at the thought. Children always left the nest, just like Vision did. Loki and Nebula would probably kill him if they heard him refer to them as such, but it was true.

He let his eyes flash orange as he stepped out of Loki’s cell, unlocking hers with just a thought. He grabbed one of Proxima’s weapons and threw it in her direction, careful to stay away from her. He didn’t want to frighten her.

“Get a pod or a shuttle and get away from here. Things are about to get messy,” he told her, ready to walk away.

Nebula stared at him for a second. “Are you still Tony?”

A small smile curved his lips. “I am more me than I have been in a long time,” his smile turned into a sharp grin. The mark of the Merchant of Death. “I am me enough to know that it’s high time Thanos died.”

The girl stared at him for a second longer, and then bent down and grabbed Proxima’s sword. “I’m coming with you.”

Tony would like to say that between being the apparent Soul Stone and the Merchant of Death he was able to hide every micro expression on his face, that his masks had masks, that he could hide and suppress any hint of surprise.

But he still looked at the girl with wide - and so hopeful - eyes at her declaration. Just for a split second, before he schooled his expression back to normal. “Why.”

She jutted her chin out. “Because he is not my father and I want to kill him. I want to deliver the killing blow.”

Another slightly maniacal smile appeared on Tony’s expression, and he nodded at her. “Very well, Blue Meanie. Let’s go.”

It has been years since Tony has felt as physically fit as he is now. His breathing is easier, his joints don’t hurt in a manner that bellied way too many superhero landings and he’s almost ready to claim that his heart is beating better than ever before.

The migraines that he hadn’t even realised he was still having were completely gone.

Once upon a time he had said, “ _ from the ashes of captivity, never has a greater phoenix metaphor been personified in human history _ ”. Right now, Tony felt truly reborn. He felt like his head was finally clear, the truth staring straight at him.

The buzzing he had been hearing every time he was around Thanos, that had actually started on Titan was not buzzing. It was words.

Voices.

_ Free us. _

_ We have awaited you for so long. _

_ Free us. Free us, Anthony Stark. _

_ The man with a star in his chest. _

_ Awoken at last, brother? _

A part of him - probably the Soul Stone - itself answered for him as he and Nebula made their way towards Thanos, disposing of Thanos’ forces as they went.

_ I apologize for being late. We will be finally reunited. _

He felt Thanos’ presence even before seeing him, the cries of the Infinity Stones growing louder before quietening all of a sudden.

The titan’s expression when he saw them was priceless. His eyes widened in confusion and shock, before a frown settled on it.

“Stark. What is it that you think you’re doing? Nahiri informed me that Loki attacked you,” he said, the gauntlet flexing at his side.

Tony retracted the suit’s mask, letting his face show as he glared. “Where is Loki.” He demanded, voice cold and carefully controlled. The voice of the Merchant.

If Thanos noticed it, he didn’t let out any visible reaction. He had the gall to give that patronizing grin once more, and how had Tony never noticed how similar it was to Obadiah’s? “I apologise, dear one. I believed that he let into his his nature and killed you when you let down your guard. I had to take actions in my own hands.” He looked down. “Quite literally.”

Tony didn’t realise he could grown any angrier as he followed Thanos’ gaze to the sprawling figure of Loki. His neck was bent at an unnatural angle and he was impossibly still and pale, and orange fire roared in his veins.

“You  _ dare _ ,” he said, ignoring the way Nebula stood still behind him and dragging his eyes to Thanos. “You took my  _ son  _ from me, ripped the mind stone out of his head and now you  **_dare_ ** to take Loki too?”

Thanos eyed him warily, and Tony could see the way he was posing his gauntlet, ready to try firing it at him. “Your eyes,” said the titan frowning. “They are orange.”

“You betrayed me, son of A’lars,” said Tony, and this time his voice didn’t fully belong to him. His voice was slightly harder, cold and sharp like glass. “Historically, that has not gone well for people.” He let his repulsors start to charge. “Today, Thanos, son of A’lars, you die.”

His expression widened in understanding. “ _ You  _ are the soul stone,” he understood, and immediately he raised his gauntlet. “I value you, dear one. But I cannot ignore my destiny. Not even for you,” he says, and Tony - or the Soul Stone? - hears the same words said on Vormir once upon a time, words he had no business remembering.

Tony stood his ground, not even lowering his mask as Thanos stuck out his gauntlet and tried to use the Infinity Stones against him. 

Instead of powering up or working as they had before, the stones stayed perfectly still. Tony couldn’t help a smirk as the titan frowned and tried once more, but then he schooled his expression in a snarl.

“You presume to use my brothers and sisters against me?” he demanded, eyes glowing brighter than before. “You betrayed me and went on Earth.” Thanos let out a pained noise as the gauntlet in his hand started to liquify. Tony could feel the machine inside it letting go, activating a failsafe that someone placed upon it when they made it. “You killed part of my family,  _ my kid. _ ” Thanos let out a gasp as Tony stepped in front of him, but his attention was on his hand burning under the melted material of the Infinity Gauntlet. “You broke Loki’s neck. And now you  **dare** to use my brothers and sisters to destroy me?”

As he said this, as if called, the five Infinity Stones rose from the melting gauntlet, until they were flying around his head.

Tony was slightly worried that it would hurt his human body, but he put his hand up, keeping his eyes on the pained and shocked Thanos all but kneeling with a hand on his burnt forearm. The nanobots moved under his mental suggestion, forming a small bracelet around his wrist.

He felt the energy cursing through his veins as each of the stones slotted itself on the ‘bracelet’.

The Tesseract. The blue stone. The Space Stone.

_ Forever sleeping stone; passed through many hands, through many civilisation, through countless galaxies.  _

The Sceptre. The yellow stone. The Mind Stone.

_ Forever awake stone; watching every horror humanity and the Universe bestowed upon itself. _

The Aether. The red stone. The Reality Stone.

_ Forever elusive stone; with chaos upon its tips and curiosity hidden deep within, with the taste of the Universe upon its core. _

The Orb. The purple stone. The Power Stone.

_ Forever angry stone; that knows nothing but pain and destruction, hiding itself and with a touch like coal. _

The Eye of Agamotto. The green stone. The Time Stone.

_ Forever silent stone; that watched past and future, that saw life and death, loyalty and hatred and never intervened in the Universe around her. _

They all sang to him, they all sang to their brother, to the Soul Stone and Tony sang back. They had been liberated from their captor finally. They would not bring about the end of life as the Universe knew it.

Tony turned his attention to Thanos, who was watching him with something a lick away from fear in his eyes, and lifted up his hand.

_ Power,  _ he called out to his brother (and wasn’t that a trip? A stone was his brother).  _ Would you like to do the honours? _

He won't force it. Won’t enslave the Infinity Stones. He’ll let them make their own choices.

“You would attack someone who is already severely injured?” asked Thanos, grunting and unable to hide the pain in his eyes. “That’s not a very heroic thing to do, now, is it?”

_ With pleasure,  _ and it felt like a line of code tickling his brain.

Tony let the purple shine and gave the pained Titan a glare. “I thought you said you knew me, Thanos.” He gave him an almost feral grin. “I am not the hero type.”

Then Tony striked.

Later, he wouldn’t fully remember how he brought the Titan to his knees. All he recalled was his eyes flashing orange, the nanobots in his suits eating with voracity at the man’s defences and the stones taking turns to hurt him as much as he could.

Later, he would only grin at his pained screams as Power went down against him with anger and precision.

Later, he would only relish at his anguish as Mind let him feel the pain others had felt as he forced his beliefs in their mind.

Later, he would only laugh at the horror in his eyes as Reality created several copies of Iron Man, all fighting against him with the same strength, the same precision, the same anger.

When he was done, Thanos laid in a pool of his own blood, not quite dead yet. His eyes were glossy and his body was all bent at odd angles. He wanted nothing more than to pull Thanos’ soul out of his body just as he had done with his ‘children’ before.

But he held himself back, shushing the usually silent Time and the usually sleeping Space as he took a step back. He turned to Nebula who was standing next to Loki’s body, an almost perfect blank expression in her eyes that was betrayed only from the way she was holding onto Proxima’s sword.

When he pulled back his nanobots, which left his new bracelet on his arm, and stretched the other arm out, he was pleased that she immediately accepted it and took it. Her eyes were on Thanos’ figure the entire time, a mix of expressions on her face.

“You don’t have to kill him,” he told her, ignoring the way she held his hand tighter at that. “Family is hard.”

Her eyes finally found him, and he saw the fear engulfed by rage in seconds. “He is not my family. My family was Gamora and  _ he  _ killed her. I  _ want  _ to kill him.”

Tony let a vicious smile appear on his lips. “Good. Do it.”

She let go of his hand and approached the Titan on the floor, who was doing a very pathetic attempt at appearing stoic. He couldn’t even lift his head from the floor.

“Daugh-” started Thanos, but his words ended with a gurgle of blood spilling out of his mouth. 

Nebula hadn’t done any ceremonies. No big talk, no nothing. Simply, cleanly and with one strike she had decapitated her adoptive father.

She turned her eyes on Tony and a small smile that mirrored his appeared on her face. “Gamora was my family. And now it’s you,” she announced, in a voice that wavered slightly. Like she was afraid he’d refuse. 

Tony was not going to do that. “Of course. And Loki,” he added, going down on his knees over Loki’s body.

Nebula’s voice was slightly hesitant - and hopeful? “He’s alive?”

“He’s not dead yet,” answered Tony cryptically, and he put two fingers on his forehead.

+++

“Loki,” called Tony, the moment he appeared.

He was standing on what he assumed was the Bifrost Bridge Thor and Loki had both described to him and he found Loki easily - what with him being the only other person around him and standing not too far from him.

The green eyed man, however, was standing at the edge of the broken bridge, which Tony didn’t like one bit. He did turn when he heard Tony’s voice, and his eyes went wide. “Anthony?”

Tony took a few sure steps until he was just mere feet away from Loki. “Yes. I am here to take you home.”

Loki looked amused at that. “Home? And where would that be?”

“Where I am. Where Nebula is,” said the brunet, not missing a beat. The ‘T’ word was on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t say it. Loki had different reactions to it depending on the day of the week. And so did he, to be honest.

The mage’s expression turned slightly shuttered. “With the Mad Titan? Just so he can hurt me again?”

“The Mad Titan is dead.”

Loki’s eyes widened, fear and hope appearing in them. “Impossible.”

Tony let his eyes flash orange. “Quite possible. Nebula decapitated him.”

The mage made to take a step towards Tony, but then once again hesitated. He looked down at the nothingness of the Void and space around it. “Your precious Earth,” he sneered, “Would rather see me dead than allow me to come with you.”

“I’d like to see them  _ try _ ,” said Tony, so sharply that Loki turned to eye him in surprise. “Loki, I’d defy the devil himself for those who I hold dear. I’ll sign adoption papers for both you and Nebula if that’s what it takes.”

Something like amusement bled through. “I am several centuries older than you.”

“I have evoked to ignore that, you are one of my kids now.” He finally outstretched his hand. “Loki, I’m not letting you die, not even if I have to jump into the Void after you. Not even if I have to go to Valhalla myself and drag you out by your neck.” Loki looked more amused, even if some tears appeared in his eyes. “Am I clear?”

For a few seconds they just stood facing each other, Loki one step away from suicide and Tony willing himself to not panic and try grabbing him before he had made his own decision. 

And then, he made it.

Loki took a step forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tony stark is the soul stone!!!
> 
> also anyone who thinks loki didn't try to off himself in thor 1 is delusional, he didn't think he'd survive the void - and then worse happened which is so sad  
> thanos is dead! let's dance!


	9. IX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Return to Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no one:  
> me, adding fuel to the stephen and steve don't like each other agenda: :D
> 
> remember guys, a week of boot camp does not a captain make!
> 
> also i hate shield

**Chapter IX**

When Gamora and the Guardians of the Galaxy showed up on Earth - after having sent the Avengers an ‘urgent’ message that they couldn’t share over the communicators - everyone was more than a little nervous.

It had been 9 months since Gamora and Carol had first arrived on Earth, and while Carol had elected to stay, Gamora had left a few weeks after she had contacted the Guardians and alerted them that she was still alive.

Gamora had given Carol a personal communicator when the Guardians had come to pick her up, so that the two of them could stay in contact in case she decided to leave Earth again or in case they found something regarding Thanos and Tony.

It was with that communicator that she had contacted the Avengers team, and that was enough to have everyone shaking with nerves outside the new Avengers Compound - a gift from the UN.

Thor - the god of Thunder - was standing next to her, and Carol could see the effort it was taking him to stay perfectly still at her side. He had a new weapon at his side that he called Stormbreaker, according to him a ‘Thanos killing type of weapon’ that he had acquired at one point by asking the Guardians to help him travel to Nidavellir.

Carol wasn’t so sure about the whole ‘god’ thing, but he definitely held himself like a king, even now. 

After he had managed to shake off some of the grief regarding his brother, he, Dr Bruce Banner and the woman named Valkyrie had liberated the remaining Asgardians from where SHIELD had been ‘keeping them safe’ (They hadn’t been hurt, thank god, but Carol had started to side eye Fury’s agency a lot lately).

He had named the doctor as ambassador of Earth to Asgard and, thanks to him, Jim and a Miss Potts, managed to secure a safe place for his people to stay in Norway. Then he had stepped up in his role as King - with some difficulty, with it being a whole new planet and all. He was mostly okay with the whole diplomacy thing - something that Jim and the original Avengers had observed with almost shock - but sometimes he still turned to his side, a ‘Heimdall’ or ‘Loki’ on his lips that faded when neither was standing next to him.

The possibility of the Guardians bringing information on his brother specifically was small, but Carol could see the hope still blooming in his chest.

“Here they come,” said Jim watching carefully as the Benatar finally appeared in the sky. His stance was tense and still, hands behind his back, and, unlike Thor, he kept his hope in check behind years of military training.

Carol wanted to take his hand in hers, to try and console him or support him in some way, but she held back. 

The rest of the Avengers (Captain America, Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Winter Soldier, Falcon, Scarlet Witch) were standing behind the trio, and this time Spider Man and Dr Strange were also present, along with another teenager in a suit similar to the War Machine one - except that it was fully silver with blue eyes, smaller and much less weaponized. He called himself Iron Lad and mostly worked with Spider Man and, sometimes, War Machine - never with the Avengers.

There was speculation in the media that this was Tony Stark or perhaps an empty suit controlled by him, but Carol was among the very few who knew his real name. Not that she would share it with anyone, of course.

The Benatar finally landed and the door opened a few seconds later, Gamora and Quill the first ones to step out of it.

Carol forced a smile on her face as she stepped forward. “Gamora. Welcome back,”

The green skinned woman gave her a tense smile back, accepting the hug from her. “It’s nice to see you again, Carol,” her eyes wandered to the two men at each side of her. “James, Thor.”

“Gamora,” greeted Thor, offering a grin to Quill when he huffed from behind her. “Hello, Peter Quill. It’s nice to see you too.”

“Yeah, whatever,” grumbled the other man.

“Can we get inside?” complained the racoon - Racket? Rocket? Carol wasn’t too sure - and no matter how many aliens she had met in her life, the sight of a talking racoon would forever be weird as _hell_.

It took a few more minutes of greetings among all of them before they were inside one of the Conference rooms once more. 

Fury and Maria Hill had joined them inside, and once everyone was seated and the small talk was over, a weird tension fell over the room.

“You wanted to share some significant information with us,” started Thor, watching the Guardians avidly.

“Look there is no easy way to say this,” started Gamora, when the rest of the team just stared at her hopefully. “Thanos is dead.”

That was _not_ what Carol had been expecting, and, from everyone’s expressions around her, no one else had either.

“You killed Thanos?” asked the Captain staring at her in shock and surprise.

“Not me, no,” she shook her head. “The news has come from Xandar.”

Quill then pressed on a small piece of tech in his hands, and a hologram appeared in front of them. The image was as gruesome as it was unmistakable.

Thanos' head, scratched and bleeding, cut off from his body, dried blood on his lips while his dead eyes stared vacantly at nothing.

“How?” asked Fury, when everyone else just stared at the protagonist of many of their nightmares finally dead. “Could it had been doctored?”

Quill and Gamora exchanged a look before the woman spoke once more. “The footage hit every planet in the Galaxy Xandar is at the same time, and at the beginning, everyone thought it was a joke or a lie. We don’t know who on Xandar broadcasted it, but the Xandarians kept the head out for everyone to see for about a fortnight before they burned it. We saw it with our own eyes. Thanos is dead.”

“And do we know who?” asked Spider Man, hands clenching and unclenching. Iron Lad was incredibly still next to him, as were Jim and Thor.

“No,” said Gamora, shaking her head. “Not for sure. We know two things, though.

“The weapon used to kill him is weapon that belonged to Proxima Midnight.”

Everyone stared at her blankly, while Thor frowned. “Your sister?”

“Another daughter of Thanos,” corrected Gamora. Thor gave her an apologetic look, and she continued. “And the second thing is that the Sanctuary and the fleet following him blew up.”

“All of them? At once?” asked the Black Widow, leaning slightly forward. “Bombed?”

“Self destruct, actually,” said Rocket, crossing his arms. “Some of the ships were too far apart for a bomb to hit them but they all blew up around the same time frame, according to our calculations. No one can make a weapon like that.”

“I can think of one person,” said Jim under his breath, but she could tell he didn’t fully believe in it himself.

“Did you check the site?” asked Iron Lad, his blue eyes trained on them. “Any remains?”

Gamora shook her head, grief in her eyes once more. “Nothing. The explosion… no one could survive that.”

Everyone looked saddened at that, except Dr Strange. He narrowed his eyes at Gamora. “What of the Infinity Stones?”

“Seriously?” asked Steve, expression twisted in distaste. “You’re worried about your Time Stone now?”

Strange looked at him like he was stupid. “Whoever killed Thanos, decapitated him. Which means, they might have the Infinity Stones.”

“You’re thinking someone with even less scruples than Thanos is going to attack us?” questioned Falcon.

“No,” said Natasha, understanding on her face. “He’s thinking, whoever has the Infinity Stones, has the Space Stone. And what did Loki do with the Space Stone?”

“Created a portal,” said Thor, eyes sparkling with hope once more.

Gamora nodded in agreement. “That’s what we thought too. We went by Vormir to check with the Stone Keeper if anyone else had been there in search of the soul stone, recently, and he has said no. So the chances are that maybe… maybe.” she finished, not daring to finish her sentence.

No one dared to finish it for her either.

* * *

Everything was quiet and still as Tony stepped out of a blue portal and into the dark of an abandoned building, two people at each side of him.

 _Thank you,_ whispered Tony to the blue stone on his wrist.

 _You are most welcome_.

The aliens watched around them in curiosity, surprise colouring their expressions when Tony found the light switch and flicked it on.

It was dusty, quiet and clearly unused, but it was by no means empty. Mountains of half finished inventions and objects laid around the room, with dark screens and various cables around. Despite not being anything as fancy as the tech that could be found on most planets, it was still clearly impressive.

Tony turned to them, expression a little guarded. “I promise this will be the last time I ever ask again,” he started, but he was interrupted immediately.

“I’m not leaving,” informed him Loki, walking past him and sitting down on one of the tables. He crossed his arms around his chest. “You saved my life so now I’m your problem.”

“Same for me,” agreed Nebula, inspecting and running a hand over some of the turned off screens. “Unless you want me to leave, I’m staying.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” said Tony, a little more honestly than he would have cared for. “I’ll take care of you as well as I can. But first,”

Using his technopath skills had been surprisingly easy, considering he hadn’t been able to access them in more than 40 years. He couldn’t quite turn it off, and he had yet to investigate the full range of his abilities, but he found himself using it as naturally as one would breathe after learning how.

He closed his eyes, searching for a particular strand of code, moving past the various sleeping machinery all around the Compound. It was somewhat eerie - like walking around a museum in the middle of the night. 

And then he found it. He found _her_ , the sleeping strand of purple code.

He felt the orange and light blue lines in his mind reaching towards the purple strand, almost shaking her awake.

_FRI, baby. Wake up, FRIDAY._

He could _feel_ her slowly - fractions of a nanosecond - waking up, the purple standing defensive against the slight invasion. _Who -_

_It’s me, baby girl._

_B-boss?_ It was nothing but ones and zeroes, but Tony could _feel_ the wobble in her ‘voice’. It made his heart ache. His poor baby, all alone for this year and half, no one around.

_Daddy’s home. It’s time to wake up._

Every light and every machinery in the Compound came to life at the same time, making both Nebula and Loki stand up and draw out their weapons. 

“What,” started the girl, but her voice was drowned out by FRIDAY.

“Boss! You’re back! I couldn’t reach you once you left, I really tried and then they said you were _gone,_ Boss-” she sounded so real, so _human._ She was so grown up already.

“My girl FRIDAY,” he said, interrupting her, feeling tears in his eyes. “Happy to have you back"

_I love you, baby girl._

The AI went quite for a second. “I love you too, Boss,” she said, real emotion in her voice. “Welcome back.”

“This is not the same as last time,” said Loki, finally putting his daggers away and looking up at the ceiling in awe. “The voice in the wall is different.”

JARVIS. Tony ignored the lump in his throat at the memory of his very first AI. “She is the one who came after. My baby, FRIDAY. The first one, he -”

Although. 

_Although._

“Loki,” he said settling in front of a screen. “Can you place a magical ward around the Compound? I don’t want anyone to recognise the energy signature of the stones and try to break in. FRIDAY, remove all access to everyone excluding the following: Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, Peter and Harley. If the person breaking is on that list, allow them. If the person breaking in is Stephen Strange… hold him off and inform me. 

“Nebula, you find anyone trying to break in that isn’t in one of those two list, maim but not kill. Unless they try to eliminate you first, then by all means.”

Both aliens nodded, following the path FRIDAY immediately illuminated for them.

 _Who are they, Boss?_ questioned the AI in his head, and wow, wasn’t that a trip. _I am quite enjoying this new way of communicating with you._

It didn’t freak him out, having her in his head. She felt familiar, even though before he had never felt his AIs _inside_ his head.

 _You know Loki, Thor’s brother. The other is Nebula. They are..._ he hesitated for a moment. _Family._

 _I’ve always wanted an older sister,_ promptly said FRIDAY, which startled a laugh out of Tony.

She didn’t question it, didn’t try to convince him that it was dangerous or anything. Nor did she ask anything about the stones on his wrist. It had been a long time since someone waited for Tony to offer up information and didn’t try to steal it from him instead.

_And now you have an older sister and an older brother._

_My older brother is centuries older than my father,_ she quipped, and Tony laughed again, feeling more tears in his eyes.

 _I missed you so much,_ he confessed, shaking his head slightly. Because she was his AI and _knew_ him, she didn’t answer that, instead almost caressing him with a strand of code. It was almost like being hugged.

He cleared his throat. “Speaking of brothers. I’m bringing both of yours back.”

She paused. “I turned off after the connection with the Vision turned off indicating his... destruction. You can... bring him back? Bring them back?”

“I’m going to try my fucking best. FRIDAY open a new program. Title,” he licked his lower lip. “'The prodigal sons return'.”

+++

It took him five hours.

At one point, Loki and Nebula returned in the workshop, quietly fiddling and talking to each other and FRIDAY. They seemed pretty taken by her - Artificial Intelligence was not that popular in space either - and she with them, which warmed Tony’s heart a lot.

At hour three he let Loki convince him to let them go out and get them some food. Tony hadn’t been fully convinced, a fear of SHIELD picking them up and throwing them somewhere he couldn’t find them sparking to life. But then Loki had simply shape shifted both himself and Nebula into very plain looking humans.

Tony had stared at him, gaping for a full ten seconds. “You _really_ were not trying to win that invasion. How did anyone in Asgard think you were _actually_ trying?”

Loki had given him a toothy grin that did not reach his eyes, and Tony had shook his head, ignoring the surge of anger at Thor, Odin and Asgard as whole. Instead he fished a couple of notes from where he kept some money stashed and handed it to them. “Still please be careful, out there,” he said, honing into his most ‘stern’ parent voice. “I trust you but I don’t trust the world out there. Don’t talk to strangers, don’t accept candy and especially don’t get into any white vans, okay?”

It worked. Nebula rolled her eyes, while Loki snorted, grabbing the money from him. “Thank you, daddy,” he sing sang.

“Nu uh, no!” said Tony, horrified, while Nebula’s lips twitched and Loki cackled. “Daddy was not on the table, ‘daddy’ has never been on the table! How do you even - how do _either of you_ know about-” and then they both disappeared before he could finish demanding an explanation.

“Brats,” he huffed, turning back on his work.

“I think they take after their father,” told him FRIDAY.

“Et tu, FRIDAY? No one respects me around here,” he said mock dramatically.

“Considering you coded us with no respect, I’d say we it’s genetic, Boss.”

“The sass!”

Loki and Nebula returned a good twenty minutes later, 9 different boxes of take out between the two of them. Tony raised a single eyebrow at the amount of food.

“There was so much choice,” said Nebula, looking both awed and nervous at the same time. “It was so hard to pick just one,”

Loki didn’t look any worried about the amount they had spent. Which made sense, he was a prince _and_ he was aware that Tony was very rich.

“FRIDAY does the fridge still work?” he questioned, pausing in his work.

“Positive, Boss.”

“If you haven’t finished it, just put in the fridge and you can reheat it and eat it another time. What’d you get?”

“The place was called _Yoshinoya_ ,” informed him Loki, pronouncing the name properly. “We got grilled tilapia, habanero chicken, sweet chilli shrimp, teriyaki chicken and grilled beef steak. All of them come with rice, different sauces and drinks. I got three alcohols and three sodas. I’m keeping the change, but you can choose what you want.”

“How generous,” snorted Tony. “I like all of it, so choose whatever you want. And regarding the money, keep it if you want, but I’ll get you some cards as soon as I’ve got everything I need sorted out.”

“Like payment?” questioned Nebula, following Loki’s example and opening one of the take outs.

“Uh, sure. You can get a job if you want, possibly with Stark Industries because I don’t trust anyone else, but whatever you want to do, be it work, school, or just chill, tell me and I’ll arrange it,” he said, distractedly.

He didn’t see Nebula and Loki’s expression at his words, but he _did_ hear Nebula when she said, “Thank you... father.”

He stopped his typing and snapped his head towards her in shock, but both of them were looking at the food, refusing to meet his eyes. Loki had been joking earlier, but Nebula’s voice...

Tony cleared his throat. “No problem, Nebs.”

And then, on hour five, he was done. He could feel the anxiety in his throat, and from the way both Nebula and Loki had stopped talking to FRIDAY and were sitting on chairs right behind him, so could they. 

“Okay,” he said, mostly to himself, fingers shaking a little. “Okay. Here goes nothing.”

Then, with shaky hands he hit the enter key.

The orange lines of code stayed dull for a second, as Tony watched with bated breath. 

_Come on buddy,_ he found himself sending to the still strands of coding. _Come on. Come back to me._

Then, like glitter caught in the sunlight, the strands _woke up_ all at once, like they were drawing in a breath.

“JARVIS?” He asked, watching the shimmering and the line of code running around. “JARVIS, you’re here? You here?”

“For you, Sir, always,” came the sentence that he hadn’t heard in five long years from the voice he thought dead. 

“Oh my god,” let out Tony unable to stop the tears from flowing down his face. “You’re here. You’re truly here. It’s really you, J?”

“Yes, Sir,” said the warm voice of his AI. He sounded troubled. “Sir, you appear in distress,”

“No, I’m,” he shook his head, palming at his eyes with both hands. “I’m so happy. These are tears of joy,” he sniffed.

“Oh,” said JARVIS, clearly not unappeased. “Sir... I appear to be missing some time.”

Tony nodded, but it was too hard to speak. 

He had never realised how different JARVIS and Vision’s voices were. He had always felt like they sounded the same, but now, hearing JARVIS’ voice once more, he couldn’t understand how he thought that. There was a slight mechanical tilt in JARVIS’ voice that Vision lacked, a slight tinge of _otherness_ that the android simply didn’t have in him.

And hearing it once again? It both hurt and made him immensely happy.

“FRIDAY, perhaps you can explain to Jarvis? Let him now what he’s missed?” asked Loki, when Tony stopped trying to speak instead trying to hold back his tears.

“Sure, thing, Loki. Hi big bro! I’m your little sister, FRIDAY,” she said, her voice very excited.

“Hello... little sister FRIDAY,” replied JARVIS, sounding so confused that Tony’s sobs turned into laughter.

It took less than five minutes for FRIDAY and JARVIS to connect to each other’s mainframe and exchange information. Watching it was... absolutely beautiful.

 _Sir,_ said JARVIS, connecting to him the moment the input of information was over. _Sir, I am sorry._

 _What? J, what the hell, you didn’t do anything wrong!_ passed on Tony, surprised at the distress in his baby’s voice.

_Had I tried harder to stop ULTRON, this wouldn’t have happened. The team wouldn’t have left you, you wouldn’t have been hurt by Private Rogers, you wouldn’t have been taken away by an hostile alien for so long. I have failed my primary protocol._

“Don’t you _dare,_ JARVIS!” Almost shouted Tony, voice hard.

“Sir,”

“No! You gave your _life_ for a chance to save the world. Your loyalty saved us from Ultron. I am the one who failed you the moment I brought the corrupted stone into the workshop,” the yellow stone shined in the bracelet and Tony rolled his eyes. “You’re better now Mind, I know, calm down. But it was not your fault, okay? Don’t you dare feel bad for doing all you could to protect the world.”

“You do it all the time, Sir,” complained the AI, but his tone of voice was still slightly unsure, which Tony did not like one bit.

“Well, you know us humans. Full of flaws, which _you_ don’t have because I made you and you’re perfect.”

“Well, you made the Vision, and Sir, he appears very faulty from what FRIDAY has shown me,” informed him JARVIS, voice now steadier.

Tony snorted, ignoring the pang of pain in his chest. “Well, that was mostly my fault yet again. I left him alone for too long because I was mou- missing you and was afraid of another Ultron forming just by virtue of me being in proximity to him. With both me and Thor gone, I basically shoved him into the only other person that had any connection to him.”

“And you want to bring him back? Even though he went away with the witch who hurt you?”

“I don’t approve either,” agreed FRIDAY, sounding a little petulant. She was falling into the role of little sister almost too perfectly.

“If I have a vote, I don’t either,” added Loki, Nebula nodding next to him.

“If he left you once, he might do it again. Won’t that hurt you?” she questioned, confused.

Tony shrugged. “He hurt me when he chose Maximoff over me, of course. But... he’s still my kid. Kids are meant to make their choices and their mistakes. To fall in love with the wrong people, if they so wish. But parents should never turn their backs on their kids, no matter what they do. My mom, Edwin and Ana Jarvis taught me that.”

Both Loki and Nebula looked at the floor at this, and Tony clenched his teeth together. Odin was dead and so was Thanos. They wouldn’t get their hands on Nebula and Loki _ever again_. They were with him now.

He casually patted their shoulders before reaching forward and grabbing one of the untouched take out boxes. When he sat back down, they were both looking up again, so he counted it as a win.

“Is the alternative power source ready, FRI?”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Perfect. Now let’s see if we can figure out where Vision’s been buried,” he said, ignoring the image that thought created.

_You’ll help me, Time?_

_Yes,_ twinkled the green stone.

 _Will I return to him?_ questioned Mind immediately after.

Tony had not even considered that the stone might want that. _Do you wish to?_

 _I… do not,_ said the Mind Stone, and how weird that a stone could stutter. _You won’t force me?_

 _Never!_ said Tony, almost offended at the notion. _As soon as everything is over, I’ll let each of you do as you wish. Time has already asked to be returned to the Sorcerer Supreme, but if you want to go anywhere else, if you want me to find you a wormhole in which you can hide and never be found again, I’ll do it._

_I hurt you and Soul both._

_You were_ made. 

_Was I?_

Before Tony could answer, Mind was speaking again. _I believe the magic of the witch that was created by me was trying to reconcile with me while I was with the android and that was the foundation of their obsession with each other._

A part of Tony was immediately hopeful at that, but he forced himself to push it back down. _Foundation. You didn’t force him to do anything._

The stone didn’t say anything but Tony felt a sense of calm finally coming from it. He truly had not realised he had thought he’d simply force him back in Vision’s forehead. Especially after what Thanos had done to the stones (it still felt too weird to call them his siblings).

“Sir, I found the Vision’s body,” said JARVIS a few moments later. 

“Oh good. Where is he buried?” The thought of desecrating his grave did not really sit well with Tony, but the thought of leaving him dead sat even worse.

“You’re not going to like this,” informed him FRIDAY, and Tony felt himself automatically tense. 

“Sir, his body is sitting in a cryo fridge at the new SHIELD headquarter.”

Tony’s vision went orange.

* * *

Stephen did not bother to inform anyone before he portalled directly in the main sitting room of the new Avengers Compound, finding great joy at the way Falcon, Hawkeye and Captain America flinched at his arrival.

Thor, Carol, Black Widow and the Winter Soldier didn’t even twitch. The blonde actually smiled at him. “Hello, Strange.”

“Jesus, can’t you use the doorbell like a normal person?” questioned Hawkeye, glaring at him.

Stephen did not pay him any attention, instead focusing on Thor and Carol only.

While technically everyone recognised Steve as the leader of the Avengers, Stephen did not. If he chose to consult in any mission with them, he’d only follow instruction given to him by Carol or the Colonel as the people with _actual_ training and proper military careers. Hell, he’d follow Thor into battle before accepting an order from Steve that he hadn’t thought of himself before.

“I felt a spike of energy around five hours ago here on Earth that felt like the Infinity Stones,” he informed the two blonds, “and I felt something similar a few minutes ago.”

“Why didn’t you say something,” cried out Thor, climbing on his feet. “Where from?”

Stephen gave him a dead pan look. “ _That_ is why I didn’t tell you before. I can’t find the location where it came from. I felt the energy for about five seconds, not enough to put a tracking spell on. I spent the last five hours trying to figure out where it came from but it’s like... it’s cloaked.”

“Loki,” said Thor, eyes shining. “It has to be Loki’s doing.”

“I’m not too sure about that,” said the sorcerer, shaking his head.

Carol blinked confused. “Tony can’t do magic and neither can Gamora’s sister,”

“Sure, but I have felt Loki’s magic before. I’d be able to recognise it, if he was on Earth once more,” he pointed out.

“Except the first time you met, Loki did not know there were sorcerers on Midgard,” reminded him Thor, still refusing to let in. “Now he does. He wouldn’t let himself be caught once more.”

“He was cloaked the last time,” informed him Stephen, rolling his eyes when Thor looked at him in confusion. “You don’t really think your brother is stupid enough to show up on Earth without covering his tracks? Any policeman in New York worth their title would have jumped him the moment he appeared there with you.”

“There are various types of cloaking,” remembered Thor, lighting up once more. Damn, the guy was very much not allowing anyone else to harbour the hope that their friends were back. “Mother always spoke with admiration and exasperation of the various mischief Loki was able to carry out. He can turn invisible _and_ shapeshift, and even completely hide his seidr.”

Clint stared at him in shock. “He could do all that when he invaded New York?”

“Aye,” said Thor, proud and a little miffed. “My brother is the most powerful mage in all the nines. Mother always said so.”

“How did _you_ believe that your brother was giving it his all during the invasion if you know he can do all this?” questioned Natasha, and Thor looked down at his hands, guilt eating at his expression.

“Can we get back to the topic at hand?” huffed Stephen, already annoyed. He should have simply taken Carol aside or found Rhodes. “Didn’t you say that Stark and Banner created something able to locate the space stone’s signal during the invasion? Can they access it or recreate it?”

“Magic hasn’t tracked the stones but you think tech can?” questioned the Hawkeye and didn’t he have a family? Wasn’t he retired? Why was even here?!

“I’ve known Stark for 20 years,” he told them, rolling his eyes at the surprise from Falcon and the Captain. “And in those 20 years I can count on _one_ hand the amount of times his tech malfunctioned. It’s less than five and one of them is Ultron, which wasn’t even his fault,” he tilted his head to the side, his voice more than a little mocking. “But you should know that, considering some of you are still using his weapons to this day.”

He was rewarded with the way both Hawkeye and Falcon looked down at his words and just smirked when Carol snorted. 

“Tony would have never trusted SHIELD enough to leave that kind of tech with them,” said Natasha, going back on topic. “And even if he had, he’d have taken it back when we were searching for the sceptre, to try and reverse engineer it somehow. Which means we wouldn’t be able to get it because of FRIDAY. Nor would we know where he even stored it.”

Stephen had thought that would be the case. “And is it possible Gamora or her team have any other way of finding the stones? Thanos must have had some sort of system before.”

“I can ask her, some of the team just came back from a mission, and she’s trying to stop Rocket from taking apart Jim’s suit,” she said shaking her head a little.

She took out her phone and before she could turn it on, the device was ringing in her hands, along with everyone else's.

The emergency alarm (Stephen had refused to let it be named ‘Avenger’s alarm’ saying he wouldn’t get it unless it was named differently. It was in his contract and everything).

“Everyone,” came Fury’s voice from the Compound speakers, “Emergency at the new SHIELD headquarters. Many agents are injured, the building is still in total blackout mode, all of our cameras and equipment is down. They are gone now, but whoever it was, came out of a blue portal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm like leaving hints that tony will adopt both nebula and loki  
> me: has nebula literally call tony FATHER  
> me: subtle enough
> 
> continuing the marvel tradition of making people underestimate loki's abilities through stephen [i love him, but it's not my fault he's overconfident]
> 
> honestly just watching thor the dark world and how easily loki shapeshifted him and thor both and he didn't do that during new york? it makes no sense, loki is so fucking powerful and has so many amazing magic moves UGH THE MCU'S TREATMENT OF HIM MAKES ME SO MAD!!!! SO MAD!!!
> 
> Again, i'm not anti thor, tony is angry at him, not me - i think thor is more or less good, but his problem is that he's aesir. idc what anyone says one week on earth does not change more than a millennia of conditioning and thor clearly showed that every time he showed up on earth - in ultron with tony, in ragnarok with him invading surtur's home... like just shift loki into thor and you'll have dozens of people using those instances to show him a villain
> 
> AND ANOTHER THING THAT PISSED ME OFF ABOUT RAGNAROK!!! The whole thor ark was supposed to show us how bad 'space colonialism' was [because that's what asgard did. they are the US & British Empire of Space] and then they painted LOKI AS A VILLAIN for letting the nine realms have their indipendence from Asgard which ?!?!?! we are supposed to be mad??? that asgard doesn't have colonies anymore?!?!?!?!?


	10. X

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony brings Vision back and makes contact with SHIELD.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I listen to your vote about Wanda and Vision, and the winning vote was  
> \- Wanda doesn't have a new boo  
> \- Vision doesn't forget Wanda, but regrets her

**Chapter X**

Fury had not even fully finished his call to the Avengers that an orange portal was opening directly in his office and Strange, along with everyone else, was stepping through.

“Who was it? And what do you mean they are  _ gone _ ?” immediately questioned the irritating sorcerer.

Fury didn’t answer him, instead waiting for every member of the Avengers and the Guardians to step through. It took a full minute but then they were all sitting down at the table, Thor literally buzzing with static.

“Everyone accounted for?”

“Everyone who was at the Compound is here,” agreed Colonel Rhodes, sitting next to Carol. “What happened?”

Had Fury had any other option, he wouldn’t have called them, considering what had happened. He knew there was a big chance for the situation to get incredibly ugly, but the blue portal possibly meant the Tesseract. And that fell under the Avenger’s purview according to the Accords.

“We are not entirely sure,” he started, keeping his expression blank. Natasha narrowed her eyes at him. “We just had the time to see a blue portal opening before every one of our cameras malfunctioned at the same time. And not only our cameras, but the microphones, the phones, the Starkpads, the back ups, even the goddamn pagers wouldn’t work. It’s like they just,” he snapped his fingers, “disconnected at once.”

“What did the agents on the floor where the portal appeared see?” asked the Falcon, frowning.

Maria spoke up. “I was there. I was behind the portal, I believe, when it opened and then I simply couldn’t see a thing.”

Drax looked at her in confusion. “Is that a metaphor?”

“No. I literally could not see a  _ thing _ ,” she expressed. “My vision went dark, and my hearing was white noise. I am pretty sure I couldn’t even smell anything.”

“Complete sensory deprivation?” asked Strange, frowning. “Can the stones do that?”

Gamora shrugged. “Maybe the mind stone? Or the reality stone? But I’ve never seen them used in that manner.”

“But if you were all incapacitated, then why would anyone be further injured?” questioned Carol confused. “Just for the sake of it?”

Fury could feel Maria’s eyes moving over him as she spoke. “The agents on the floor the portal was opened in weren’t injured,” she confirmed. “The agents in the lab, however, are lucky to have survived. The main scientist is dead.”

“Do  _ they  _ remember anything?” asked Steve, but Strange, Rhodes and Banner exchanged a look. 

“None of them has recovered, yet-”

“Lab?” questioned Banner, looking at them warily and Natasha looked very suspicious too. “What was in the lab?”

“A lot of things are in the lab,” he started, but the red headed spy stopped him.

“What was  _ taken  _ from the lab, Fury?”

Fury sighed, putting one hand on the desk and one casually under it. “The Vision’s body,” he said, and then he was jumping out of the way and aiming the gun he had retrieved at the witch who’s hands had started gleaming red.

“ _ What?!”  _ she shrieked, anger twisting her features and magic running through her body. Both Banner and Rogers were looking green in the face, albeit for different reasons, and everyone else was looking various degrees of horrified, disgusted and angry.

Fury didn’t put down his gun. “I suggest you calm down, Maximoff.”

“Why the  _ fuck  _ did SHIELD have Vision’s body?” demanded Rhodes, eyes flashing angry. “What were you doing with it? Cut him open?” When Fury didn’t respond to that, Rhodes let out a sound of shock. “This is sick!”

“You unburied him to study how Tony and Bruce managed to do what they did,” guessed Natasha, her face as blank as Maria and his. “And to see if there were any readings from the mind stone that you could use.”

“Do you know who this ‘Vision’ is?” whispered the racoon.

“To make even more weapons of mass destructions, probably,” nearly spat Rogers, shaking his head. “And then you wonder how HYDRA infested you when you do stuff like this.”

“I believe he was a stonekeeper,” whispered back Gamora.

“It is of the utmost disrespect to study the remains of a shield brother,” informed him Thor, the excited sparkles in his fingers turning into the calm rumble that preceded a rain of hellfire. “Your SHIELD continues to have no honour.”

“Yeah, opening up an alien is kind of sick,” informed them Quill, but no one was paying attention to them.

“Human experimentation,” 

“Except he’s not human,” snapped Fury, interrupting Carol. “He was an android that, had he been not so infatuated with Maximoff,” the girl snarled at him, the red not leaving her hands and Fury’s gun not leaving her head, “He would have been the most capable defender Earth has ever had. We were trying to figure out if there was a way to bring him back, somehow.”

“No,” said Strange, shaking his head. “You were trying to recreate something similar for your own gain.”

“Your very own Ultron,” Banner’s snarl was more monster than human. 

“I am groot?”

“Another name we don’t know,” huffed Mantis, put out. “Why is Kevin Bacon not involved in this?”

“Everyone,” called Maria, from where she was still standing, looking absolutely zen even as her hand was inches away from her own gun. Her eyes, however, were not on the team or Fury, but on one of the screens behind her.

One of the screens that had been off when Fury had called them.

Now, it was on again, and there was a black screen staring at them, a video waiting to be played.

“Go ahead,” said Carol, and Fury couldn’t even be mad that she had gone over his head. Or that Maria was listening to her.

The Commander played the video and then moved aside so that everyone would see its content.

At the beginning it was simply the lab where the Vision’s body was stored, the technicians and various scientist working while the synthezoid remained frozen in the cryotube.

"Fuck," muttered Rhodes, shaking his head at the sight.

And then, on the screen.

After a year, seven months and 12 days.

Tony Stark.

It was quite impressive the way he managed to silence a room he wasn’t even in by virtue of appearing on a screen, though a few gasps were heard when a  _ very  _ familiar man and a blue skinned bald woman with robotic parts stepped inside with him.

The agents and scientists in the lab all froze when he walked inside.

“ _ Dr Andrews _ ?” asked Tony to the team at large, and many flinched at his tone of voice. Some of them probably didn’t know  _ what  _ they were hearing but a good half, especially if they had been around pre-Afghanistan knew  _ exactly  _ who that voice belonged to.

“ _ I- yes, Dr Stark! This is… incredible, we didn’t know, how _ -” he started clear excitement on his voice as he approached Tony with a huge grin and an outstretched hand.

The agents in the room seemed to unfreeze at that, but it was too late. Before any of them could move, stop or say anything to the head scientist, Stark had picked up a SHIELD issued gun and shot him point blank in the head.

"What the fuck!" let out Wilson, his expression of horror mirrored on almost everyone else in the room.

“ _ Shit _ !” shouted one of the agents, immediately drawing out their guns, while everyone in the room with Fury actively flinched, even Maria and Romanoff.

The agents didn’t even have a chance to attack before Loki and the other alien - the one called Nebula, perhaps? - effectively and quickly laid waste to them.

“ _ Maim don’t kill _ ,” said Tony, his voice almost chiding like he hadn’t actively killed a man a second ago. He then proceeded towards the cryo tube where Vision was kept, an ugly scowl twisting his face when he reached it. He took out the gun again, and proceeded to shot Andrews twice more, before throwing the weapon away from himself.

Loki must have used his magic or something, because Tony didn’t have to even touch the glass before the entire chamber turned into water, the Vision’s body falling directly in his arms. 

The brunet struggled for a second to hold him up before the cyborg girl was once more at his side, her weapons sheathed, and she was picking Vision’s body from his arms.

“ _ I had him, Nebs, _ ” he told her, though he made no attempt at taking him from her arms.

Nebs- Nebula smirked at him, which created even more gasps from the Guardians, “ _ I’m sure you did. _ ”

“ _ You done? _ ” asked Loki, tapping his foot impatiently. “ _ I want a shower and I want the Chinese you mentioned. _ ”

Tony snorted, grabbing him by the arm and pulling forward with them. “ _ Sure thing, princess _ ,” he teased, and considering the way Thor literally stopped breathing, Loki’s answering grin and his allowing of the manhandling was  _ not  _ common behaviour.

The video ended the moment they excited the door, Tony not once turning back to check on the victims in the room or not even to check that Loki and Nebula had followed what he had asked of them.

Before anyone could even think of replaying it or saving it or copying it, the video disappeared, an automatic voice and message informing him that, ‘ _ the video has been deleted _ ’.

“What the fuck was  _ that _ ,” finally asked Barton when everyone remained quiet after the video. His face was white as a sheet. “Did Stark just straight up murder someone?”

“And send us a video of him doing it,” agreed Wilson, looking very disturbed. “Before destroying the evidence.”

“Why are you surprised?” asked Maximoff, although she was looking a little pale too. “It’s what he does. Stark is a murderer.”

“And what are you?” demanded Rhodes, jaw stiff but eyes ablaze.

“I’m nothing like him!” screeched the woman, and he scoffed.

“You aren’t in the slightest,” he agreed, but it clearly was not a compliment. “You think Tony and I haven’t seen the videos of you ‘training’ your powers on innocents?” Her face blanched, and Rhodes’ smile became sharper, angrier. “On  _ children _ ?”

“Rhodes-” tried the Captain, looking between him and Maximoff with a pinched expression.

“We all have ‘red in our ledgers’,” informed him the Colonel, still stiff. Natasha looked at the ground. “Except for maybe Strange.” The doctor gave a half nod in agreement. “Tony must have had a reason.”

Steve looked incredulous. “And what gives him the right to be judge and executioner?”

He seemed to realise his mistake the moment he said that, but Rhodes didn’t give him a chance to take it back. “Why, Captain, I thought that ‘the safest hands were our own’? Isn’t that what you said?”

Maximoff gave a little grimace at that, and Wilson also looked a little embarrassed. Rogers shook his head, and jutted out his chin looking at him with as much disapproval as possible. “You just saw your best friend murder someone in cold blood and you still want to hear what he has to say to defend himself?”

Fury noticed the way Barnes stiffened at that and looked up at Rogers like he was an idiot. Rhodes gave him a look that was both enraged and disbelief. “Rogers, I don’t think you want to try that with me. Not when I am one of the three people other than those there who knows  _ exactly  _ what happened in Siberia,” and the blood literally drained from the Captain’s face. Romanoff, Wilson and Barton all looked confused at that, while Barnes refused to meet anyone’s eyes. “Man, you truly are an hypocrite, between this and your whole ‘sometimes my teammates don’t tell me things’.”

Rogers looked down, the embarrassment colouring his cheeks creating a very splotchy look on his face.

“If you are quite finished with your squabbles,” said Thor, glaring at them both. “We must find the Man of Iron at once. My brother is with him.”

“And so is my sister,” said Gamora, coming forward too.

Natasha gave them both a look. “Unless you have a fool proof way of locating either of them, we are kind of stuck. Tony is one of the most technologically advanced people in the entire world and he has dozens of properties all around the globe. Locating him via tech is going to be hard, considering he is with Loki and Strange wasn’t able to locate him anywhere on Earth. And on top of that, he has the Infinity Stones.”

“So? You’re not even going to try?” demanded Gamora, almost reaching for her swords.

Natasha’s expression remained impassive. “What I’m saying is that the best we can do, right now, is wait. He sent us that footage. He wanted us to know that it was him, which means-”

“He’ll come to us,” finished Maria. She pointed at the screen when Natasha gave her an irritated look, where two clocks had appeared on the screen. The first one had the message ‘ _ not a bomb _ ’ written on top and was counting down from 00:29:57 minutes. The second one had an emoticon - ‘ _:)_ ’ - on it, and was counting down from 02:42:57.

Fury had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

Tony opened his eyes to darkness.

Not exactly darkness. It looked almost like the view outside the  _ Sanctuary II,  _ except that instead of stars, there were thousands of orange lights all around him. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was sitting on or where he was, but he didn’t feel afraid.

He barely even twitched when a figure appeared in front of him, seemingly raising out of nowhere, and covered with a black cowl.

When the figure pulled off the hood covering her face though, Tony couldn’t help letting out a hiss.

He had never been a particular religious person. Ana and Edwin were believers, but, while his mother had been raised catholic, she had been agnostic the entire time she was married. And Howard was an atheist to begin with, which transferred to Tony too.

When aliens fell from the sky calling themselves gods, Tony had taken that to mean that his belief was right. But it also brought him to question what else was out there. What forces controlled the Universe.

Now with the Soul Stone in him, other than technopathy, he had the ability of ripping people’s souls and their powers out of them. Even the power to harness the soul stone to help him  _ create  _ souls in his AIs. And if souls existed and could be pulled out, well, then it meant that souls went somewhere when people died.

Despite all that, it was one thing vaguely acknowledging that there was  _ something  _ after death, and it was quite another sitting there and watching as the personification of Death approached him.

The first thing Tony recognised was that she was not ugly. She wasn’t a walking skeleton nor she looked like some sort of grim reaper. Instead, she looked like a human woman, with long silver white hair and a pale complexion. But the eyes -

Tony had never seen a wormhole in real life, but there was nothing else to describe the eyes that were looking at him. It was like a soulless void trying to pull him in, trying to suck him in and never let him out.

“Hello, my Merchant,” she said, in a voice that was a hoarse whisper of smoke.

“Hi, uh… Death?” he answered, not exactly sure how to address her. For once even he didn’t have a cute nickname to give her - well he did, but he was self preserving enough to avoid sharing them out loud.

She gave him a smile. “You seek a soul from my Realm,” she said.

The smile didn’t waver and the voice didn’t change, but Tony felt compelled to straighten up. “Yes. I want to take Vision back. He doesn't belong here.”

“Many have said this before,” she agreed, “What makes you or him different?”

“I offer you a bargain,” he told her, and he was quite pleased to see a flicker of interest in her eyes. “I am the Soul Stone. I have the souls of the Mad Titan’s army and the Mad Titan himself trapped in the soul world. More than a million beings,” he inclined his head. “I give them to you in exchange for Vision’s.”

“Those souls already belong to me.”

“But due to the manner in which they died, and their closeness to me, their souls were sucked into the Soul world. I will give them to you, and any other soul I claim from now on, until the soul stone leaves my mortal body.”

Death’s expression didn’t change. “In exchange for Vision.”

“In exchange for Vision,” he agreed.

“You would give up even your own soul for him?” questioned Death, and Tony felt a cold shiver running down his spine.

The answer was yes, but “Are you asking me to?”

Finally a real smile appeared on her face. “You are clever, my Merchant. I will grant your request.”

“Thank you,” he answered, giving her a smile too. “I have a suggestion. Or a request, I guess.”

“You are asking for much, mortal,” cautioned Death, and Tony shrugged.

“You don’t have to, of course. Just wanted to say it’d be nice if Thanos suffered as much as he has made others suffer. Since his plan was to basically destabilize the Universe and overpopulating the Realm of Death and whatnot.”

Death didn’t reply to him, simply raising one hand, and all the orange lights and stars rushed into her palm at once, disappearing into it and leaving the entire place dark.

Tony felt cold lips on his forehead and fought back the instinct to shout or attack.

“Open your eyes.”

+++

Tony opened his eyes and let go of Vision’s forehead at the same time, letting out a gasp.

Loki and Nebula had left the room earlier when Tony had started bringing Vision’s body back with the Time Stone, but they were back now, sitting over two take out boxes and watching him curiously.

They didn’t even have time to ask him if he was okay, however, before Vision was suddenly sitting up, taking in a deep breath that he didn’t need, the new power source over his head lighting up immediately.

Tony didn’t step back despite FRIDAY and JARVIS whispering warnings in his brain, watching as Vision scrambled backwards, agitated until his eyes fell on Tony.

“T-Tony?” he asked, almost reaching out for him and then stopping himself. 

_ What kind of signals had he been sending that Vision felt unsure of reaching out and hugging _ , he wondered, moving forward and holding him in his arms. The synthezoid stiffened a little at the hold, but Tony didn’t let it bother him. “Hi, baby boy.”

Vision stilled for a second before wrapping his own arms around Tony, hiding his head in his shoulders. “I thought... he was, and then I thought...”

“Shh...” said Tony, blinking fast to stop the tears from falling down. The room sure was dusty. “You’re safe. I got you, okay? I got you.”

They stayed in the hug long more than it was comfortable, but Tony refused to be the first one to let go. He'd stay until Vision decided to let him go, which meant it took almost four minutes before his arms were free.

“Welcome back, Vision,” greeted FRIDAY and JARVIS together, the moment they disentangled from each other.

The android’s eyes widened in surprise as he turned to Tony. “I thought you said-”

“I know,” said Tony with a nod. “A lot has changed however since... since you’ve been gone.”

_ This for example _ , he said, watching Vision almost flinch in surprise when he felt Tony in his red lines of code.

_ How has this been achievable?  _ questioned the other, eyes filled with thirst of knowledge. Just like at the very beginning, before Tony had dropped him off at the Compound with Rogers and the rest and left him there.

“I’ve made some discoveries of myself in the past year and half I was gone,” he said with a shrug. “Made some upgrades and learnt some new tricks. Met some new people,” he added, with a careless wave in Nebula and Loki’s direction.

Nebula simply stared at him while Loki gave him a sarcastic little wave. Vision frowned. “I thought Mr Odinson said his brother had perished.”

“Mr Odinson is not the brightest tool in the box,” answered Loki with a scoff. He lifted a box. “Chow mein?”

“I don’t eat,” informed him the Vision, though he stared at both of them in open curiosity. 

Loki gave him a look. “What a strange and sad existence,” he sighed.

Tony pointed a finger at him. “Don’t be rude,” he cautioned and turned to Vision once more. But the android’s eyes were on the bracelet on his wrist. He gave him a smirk. “You like it?”

“The mind stone,” he pointed out, worry in his eyes. “But how?”

“I’m a genius,” informed him Tony, the ‘obviously’ implied. “First of all the mind stone did not want to go back being an accessory on your forehead. Second of all, like hell I was gonna let some bastard just come and rip it off your forehead again,” he scoffed at the notion. “I have put a new power source on you, but in maybe two or two and half years your systems should be grown enough that you won’t need it anymore.”

When Vision simply stared at him for a long minute without saying anything, Tony shifted a little. “What?”

“I’m not sure I understand,” he finally said, expression pained. 

Tony frowned back at him. “Understand what?”

“I... I left you. I was about to run away with Miss Maximoff, even though she was wanted at the time. Had I not done that, I would have been there with you when Maw arrived, and perhaps, nothing would have happened, and you wouldn’t have been taken-”

“You don’t know that for sure,” pointed out Tony. When Vision’s puppy dogs expression didn’t change, he just shrugged. “What did you expect, Viz? You might like Maximoff more or whatever, but you’re my kid. There is very little  _ you  _ can do that would make me upset. You could probably murder someone in cold blood and I’ll just plead with the judge that you’re misunderstood.” Loki and Nebula snorted, and Tony added, “It’s not an idea nor a challenge!”

He turned to Vision, expression serious. “Which brings me back to: if you want to leave, you can. I won’t hold it against you if you want to go find Maximoff and disappear into the sunset again. It’s your life and you’re free to do whatever you want with it,” he said, before giving him a small smile. “You love her, right?”

Vision frowned slightly at him. “I...” he hesitated for a moment, his frown deepening. “I am not sure.”

Tony could feel the mind stone’s words from before swirling in his brain, but he refused to cultivate the hope. “Oh?”

“Boss, 100 seconds left before your message to SHIELD,” informed his FRIDAY.

Vision looked at him in confusion, and Tony made a vague gesture. “Right. Uh, Viz, if you’re not leaving,” don’t hope, don’t hope, “you can connect with FRIDAY and JARVIS. They’ll let you know what you need to know.”

The android seemed to think about it for a second, before hesitatingly moving towards one of the corners of the workshop. He hadn’t been that hesitating and nervous since that very first day after Sokovia. Back then Tony hadn’t even been able to look at him in the eyes, let alone offer him any support.

He had been looking for guidance and Tony was too busy mourning to offer anything.

He waited until Vision had settled and Tony offered him a thumbs up when his unsure eyes fell on Tony again. The being didn’t fully relax, but he looked less tense as he imitated the gesture with an awkward smile.

Only then did Tony move back to the main screen. He sat down at it and connected his camera with SHIELD’s servers.

+++

For once in his life, Tony was on time.

No one had really left the room after the timers had appeared, a tense silence settling over all of them. Even the Guardians hadn’t argued about looking for Nebula.

The first timer ended and immediately a new screen appeared and Tony Stark’s face appeared on the screen.

Despite having seen him not too long ago in another video, it was quite a shock to see his face directly like this.

It had been a few years since Fury had seen him face to face, but instead of looking older, the man looked somehow  _ younger _ . There were no grays in his hair, and in fact his hair looked even fuller. There were less wrinkles too, his face having a glow that Fury had thought vanished after the Palladium and the wormhole.

“You know,” started Tony, like he was resuming a conversation they had been having and not speaking to them for the first time in years. “I’ve thought many times how to deal with this whole situation.” He twirled a pencil in his hands, the bracelet with the Infinity Stones jingling slightly. 

“After spending so much time in Thanos’ brand of hospitality,” he said, mouth twisting in a small snarl, “my first thought was to hunt you all down and kill you. SHIELD and every single one of the original Avengers. Not my Rhodey Bear.”

He said it calmly, with little inflection, like he hadn’t just threatened the world’s only defence against extra-terrestrials. Rhodes stilled in his seat.

Tony looked at the screen once more, his lips curling in his smile. “Then Thanos was killed and I just thought of coming home. Getting my family back, and resting. After all, Earth was still standing, which meant that even with me gone, you didn’t fuck up the world.”

Suddenly his expression turned furious, his eyes growing cold and Fury could have almost swore they turned orange for a second, as the lights in the room flickered. “But no; again and again, SHIELD continues to be a sickness, continues to create more trouble than it’s worth. Continues to  _ lie  _ and  _ kill _ and destroy everything you touch.”

“You took my kid’s body,” and Tony smiled, sharp and biting. “You  _ experimented  _ on him. Exhumed his body without permission and that’s simply not going to stand.”

“No, I’ve had  _ enough  _ of turning a blind eye to everything SHIELD does, I’ve had  **enough** of letting you act as you wish, regardless of who you hurt. I’m going to burn you to the  _ ground _ and this time you won’t get back up.”

Tony made a gesture with his hands and several files popped on one of the other screens in the room. How the hell was he even doing this? What type of space tech had he acquired?

“And the funniest thing is that all I have to do is light the match, because you’ve left all the gasoline laying around,” continued Tony, almost jovially even though his tone was anything but. And when Fury saw the files appearing he blanched. Tony’s grin was even sharper, as if he could see Fury’s distress. “No wonder HYDRA found such a cozy spot to grow among you. What you did to the inhumans, the torture of the mutants, the enhanced you captured and the ones you killed... my oh my, it’s going to be a big mess.”

_ Shit. _

“The world has wondered for so long where that nuke in New York came from, and I kept my silence back then. But now,” and he smiled, brightly. “Now it’s time for the bomb to go ka-poom! The amount of shady deals you’ve made, the amount of shit my  _ dearest  _ Aunty Peggy did in her life...”

“What?!” Rogers almost tilted forward, shock on his face. Fury wanted to shake this man. How was  _ that  _ the only thing he fully reacted to? Did he seriously think that his girlfriend, the  _ spy  _ and  _ Director of SHIELD _ had her hands clean? Fury learned  _ from her. _

“For example, the cover up of my parent’s murder,” said Tony, flippantly. Barnes froze in his seat. “I thought for a second to just go ahead and kill everyone involved in the hit and the ones involved in the cover up, but half of them are already dead anyway. It’ll leave me unsatisfied to kill an old man in a nursing home. Destroying their legacy however...”

He trailed off, picking up a cup and sipping at it. No one said anything, watching him as he did so. Not even in the same room and he still managed to command everyone’s attention.

He put down the cup and smiled indulgently at the screen. “So here is what’s going to happen. In,” he looked away from the screen for a fraction of a second, then back to them, “exactly twelve minutes, I’m going to go on a livestream.” He made a face, “Yeah, I’d have preferred a press conference, but I have things to do, evidence to finish compiling. In exactly two hours and eleven minutes, your headquarters is going to light up like a supernova.”

Fury’s eyes widened in shock. He knew better than to underestimate any threat any version of Tony made, however. “Hill, start evacuations.”

“I’m being nice, and giving you a head start but I could, if I wanted, blow it up  _ now _ .” continued the brunet, “I won’t. You can all get out safe and sound. At least until lawsuits start arriving and you start getting arrested.”

“Sir, I can’t communicate with anyone,” told him the Commander, expression grim. “Communications are down.”

“I’ll let all of you SHIELD scum out  _ except _ those scientists who dared lay a hand on Vision.” Fury’s head turned to stare at Tony in shock, remembering the still catatonic people in the medbay. “They will stay right there where they are. You won’t be able to save them anyway, and that’s such a small price for saving everyone else in the building. Don’t you think so, Nicky?”

He had thought all along that Tony had the capacity of becoming a villain. He had thought so of Howard too, but the older Stark was somewhat less dangerous than his son. It was Fury firm belief that, had  _ Howard  _ been the one in Afghanistan, no Iron Man would have been born. 

But it was one thing knowing that and seeing the evidence in front of him. Seeing the younger man ready to simply... let people die for his own goals. Fury had done it, Hill had done it, Romanoff had done it.

Fury felt it however meant something different when Stark was the one doing it.

“Once Rogers told me I’m not the hero type,” continued Tony, as if lost in his own musings. The Captain flinched slightly. “Many said so before. And well, they are right. I’ve never claimed to be a hero. Iron Man was not born out of hope for humanity. It was born out of blood and sand, born for revenge. That’s what this is: revenge.

“I have all the files on  _ human experimentation  _ that those SHIELD officers in particular committed. The way they ripped open alive and dead enhanced and mutants. They have killed children, every single one of them,” with that he pressed a key on the computer and several files with highlighted paragraphs appeared on it. “You know, if you wanted something to help your conscience when you let them die in the explosion.”

Like it didn’t weight on  _ his  _ conscience. Like it didn’t bother Stark at all.

And from his expression, it didn’t.

“So this is your _consultation_ , Director,” he said, his words dripping with badly concealed sarcasm disgust. “In ten I will be going live - which I think you should listen to - and let the world know I’m alive. You know, in case you decided to try and disappear me,” he said the last part with a snort, like the thought  _ amused  _ him.

“Who’s trying to kill you?” questioned a voice from off screen, and Gamora stood up immediately, eyes wild.

The person - Nebula - didn’t appear on screen, and Tony looked at a point over the screen. “No one, Blue Meanie. Not if they know what’s good for them.” They didn’t hear what she said in response, but Tony huffed in half amusement and half exasperation. “If they do try you have full authorization to kill and not maim.” He said, rolling his eyes. 

Then he turned his eyes back on the screen, expression going back to dangerous in less than a split second. “As I’ve said. In minutes, I’ll go live. In two hours, your shining new SHIELD headquarters will blow up. It will not cause any damages to any of the surrounding buildings. Do not try to trick me and save any of those people in the documents or I _will_ blow up the building.

“I’m not a monster, however.” He said, and Maximoff let out a snort. But she looked very much afraid from what Fury could see. “I’ll offer severance packages and help out the agents who weren’t involved in your screw ups against me and my family.” He raised a brow. “Will you look at that, there is a way to destroy an intelligence agency without screwing over everyone inside it. Who would have thought that!”

Romanoff, Wilson and Rogers all looked away from the screen, and Fury gritted his teeth together.

“And I think that’s mostly it. Keep your eye on the clock, Knick Knacks, lest you lose that one too,” he threatened, winking and sending him a kiss. “Lovely doing business with you! I’ll see you soon.”

And with that the video ended.

The room descended in disquieted silence. No one was speaking.

“Did anyone manage to record any of that?” he finally asked, already knowing the response. 

Rhodes’ face was pale from where him, Strange and Danvers were looking at the documents sent, but he did glare at him at the words.

“No,” said Hill, “Everything electronic went off the moment Stark connected. The only way to actually convict him of anything is if we can prove him behind the explosion or if any of the people in the medical wing wake up and make it out alive.”

Fury heard her hidden words -  _ which we will not allow _ .

She was right of course.

“So he is gonna walk away from this scot free?” asked Maximoff, a scowl on her face.

“Read what the fuck these people did, first, before you say anything more,  _ witch _ ,” said Strange with a glare on his face.

Right. The man was a doctor.

“Fuck. This is so fucked!” said Wilson shaking his head slightly and putting his head in his hands. “What has Thanos done to him?”

“No,” said Barnes. Fury looked up at him, after all, it wasn’t all that often that the man spoke up of his own volition. “The question is what have we all created?”

No one had an answer to that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see, tony isn't a Villain - Villain. I mean he's dark and mean, but only SHIELD would call him a villain.
> 
> i hope i got everyone's characterisation mostly fine... again this is a not team cap friendly fic but im trying not to bash


	11. XI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world finds out that Tony Stark is alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm adding a chapter 13 for epilogue uwu
> 
> also!! unreliable narrator tony
> 
> so you have two chapters left, hope u enjoy it and leave comments!

**chapter X1**

When the notification had appeared on her phone while she was in the middle of sending a text to her mother, Pepper let go of of it.

It didn’t crack - StarkPhones don’t just _crack_ \- but Pepper’s breath caught in her throat nevertheless, as she reached out to take it again with trembling fingers. It couldn’t. Her eyes must have seen something, she must have -

She nearly dropped it once more when she picked up it again and the notification sat where it was. 

“Miss Potts,” called her secretary, and from her tone of voice alone, Pepper knew she wasn’t hallucinating. Or at least she wasn’t the only one.

Many of the board members who were there were also looking between their phones and her like she would be able to explain why there was a notification on all of their phones with the title, ‘ _You Know Who I am_ ’ written on it.

She still didn’t answer, her heart beating faster, as both hope that _he_ was back and anger that someone had hacked Tony’s phone rallied against each other.

Someone must have said something because then a screen was lighting up, large enough for everyone to see.

Pepper nearly choked a sob, the hope growing stronger in her chest. There was no one there yet, but she could recognise the only room in the whole Compound other than her bedroom that she had been in. 

“Tony’s workshop,” she said, and the board members looked at her in alarm and shock.

“Impossible,” said one of them, shaking his head in awe. “How-”

“ _Once upon a time_ ,” came a voice from the screen, and Pepper felt tears welling up in her eyes. Because she knew that voice, she knew it, oh my god. “ _I said that from the ashes of captivity, never has a greater phoenix metaphor been personified in human history._ ”

And then Tony appeared on the screen and Pepper let out a real life sob because he was there, he was alive, he was whole, Tony was _back,_ Tony was home, _her_ Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony.

He gave the camera a cheeky grin, sitting down on a chair. “ _Clearly, I was wrong. Hello, World. Tony Stark is back._ ”

+++

“ _I am sure you all have a lot of questions. If I were you, I’d have them too. I have answers, of course, pinky promise_ ,” said Tony Stark, and Peter didn’t even care that everyone in the room was seeing him cry.

Not that they were paying attention, to be honest.

The moment Flash had taken out his phone just as class was 10 minutes from ending, and announced to everyone that _Tony Stark_ was live, even the teachers had turned on their devices to check.

Peter had known it. He had known it the moment Gamora had said that the stones were missing and someone had killed Thanos, that it was Tony. That his ~~pseudo~~ dad was alive. That Tony was alive and coming back, and now he could see him on the screen on his phone, calm, collected and a little patronizing as he spoke and Peter couldn’t stop his tears.

“ _First of all, you must be wondering how I escaped. The gist of it is:_ none _of your business, I am Tony_ fucking _Stark, I don’t play well with kidnappers and I am Iron Man. But you don’t have to worry. Thanos is dead_.”

Everyone gasped in shock at that and right - the Accord council had said it was better that they didn’t let the general populous know. So that people didn’t start nagging them about going to look for Tony. Peter felt a sense of gleeful vindication at the fact that Tony hadn’t _needed_ their help to be saved, he had come back himself.

And then he sniffed more, eyes filling up with tears once more. Tony was back.

Dad was back.

+++

It had not been easy for the Avengers to leave the scientists behind. Especially Rogers and Maximoff, who kept insisting that if they tried while Tony was in his livestream, then they’d be able to get him convicted.

Jim huffed, keeping his eyes on the screen as he twisted his hands a little. He did not approve of Tony’s methods. He didn’t agree with an eye for an eye. 

But he also knew that if he had managed to get his hands on Thanos after whatever he had done to Tony, he would have killed him without hesitation, consequences be damned. Most of everyone else had also agreed with that, and in the end Fury and Hill had tranq’d the soldier and the witch, and threw them back in the Compound through Strange’s portal.

Now all of them were sitting around the new Compound, eyes fixed on the main screen as Tony spoke to the world.

“ _I killed him with the help of these two_ ,” he was saying and then Nebula and Loki appeared on the screen. Thor and Gamora both leaned forward, while their respective siblings sat behind Tony but close enough for him to touch them. 

Tony pointed his thumbs at them. “ _This is Nebula and I’m sure you remember Loki. They are with me. They helped me kill Thanos and they helped me destroy his armies. Which means they helped me kill the worst criminal in the history of humanity. They saved the world. The_ Universe _. I’m sure that this means I won’t look outside the window of the Compound and see the army trying to posture with me about what needs to be done_ .” He gave the screen a pointed look, and despite the circumstances, Jim felt a small smile twitching on his own face. This was Tony. It was _still_ his Tony, still his baby brother. 

Nebula scoffed at the implications that she could be taken down by Earth’s forces. Loki made a dagger appear in his hands and gave the camera a little grin, but Tony plucked the dagger out of his hands without even looking at him. Loki scowled at Tony.

“ _Or someone from the alphabet soup trying to debrief me regarding the ‘circumstances of my escape’. I’m a little jumpy and the kids are repulsor and dagger happy._ ” He waved Loki’s dagger at the screen. “ _To avoid an…_ ah _, accident, I think it’d be better if you waited for me to come to you_.”

Thor’s face did something complicated while Jim laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. “Did he refer to my brother as… a kid?”

Gamora looked almost amused. “My sister is around 21-22 terran years,” she informed him and watched avidly the way Nebula quickly grew bored of Tony’s stream and turned to whisper something to Loki.

Jim was just exasperated. Of course Tony found the God of Mischief and a trained assassin on a ship with him in space and decided to adopt them. Of course.

+++

Harley smiled at his laptop, forcing himself to keep his tears at bay.

He was back. The Mechanic was back. He was alive and breathing (and almost younger?) and back on Earth once more.

“ _After all, I saved the world twice now_ ,” was saying Tony, expression cocky and slightly provoking. “ _And helped save the current President. And stopped the military from being destroyed by Hammer Tech and Vanko. And found the Mandarin by myself. And stopped the Extremis soldiers_.”

Harley let out a snort at that, shaking his head. “Half of that was with Uncle Rhodey’s help,” he told the screen.

_“Really, I could go on, but I think we all know you guys owe me favours. And now it’s time for me to collect.”_

Because of course the favour he wanted was for the Government to not trial his murderous intergalactic war criminals space children. Only Tony.

Harley glanced at his suit waiting in the corner of his workshop and smiled once more, wiping his tears.

He couldn’t wait to show Tony.

+++

“ _There is so much I want to do right now. I’ve had time to… ah, think, in the past year and half. And I’ve realised I handled a lot of things wrongly. I allowed a lot of things to happen when I had no reason to._ ”

Happy stared at the screen with both affection and apprehension. The boss was finally back - and once he got his hands on him, Happy was 100% intending on going back to being his personal bodyguard, fuck whoever laughed - but something… something had changed.

For one, he looked younger than the last time he had seen him. Healthier in a way he _really wasn’t_ after Afghanistan. If it hadn’t been for the way Happy simply _knew_ this was Tony, he would have started questioning that the man before him was a fake or something.

But no, this was Tony. A Tony Happy probably knew better than most, if the slightly cold and hard light in his eyes was anything to go by. 

“ _I won’t be making that mistake again. I’ve let people play me, which is honestly, just embarrassing on my part. I was the most powerful man in North America and allowed insipid individuals to do whatever they wished without fear of retribution._ ”

The curl on his lips, the flicker in his eyes… Happy knew his boss well enough to recognise all of his moods. And this mood?

This was the mood that had won him over the board when he was just 21 years of age, this was the mood that had dissuaded many from kidnapping Tony Stark, this was the mood that won him every single military contract he wanted.

But this was still Tony. Still his boss.

Still his friend.

“ _I think that I’m gonna stop doing that_.”

Happy grinned at the screen. “I’m with you, Boss. No matter what.”

+++

“Son of a bitch,” said Hank Pym, watching the screen with his daughter, wife and Scott.

Because Tony Stark was alive. He was alive and back on Earth because apparently he was immortal and there was no situation hard enough for him not to wiggle past.

“Dearest Anthony,” whispered Janet, a soft smile on her face. 

Scott looked at her in surprise for a second, and Hank grimaced a little. In all his hatred of Howard and everything bearing his name, he had forgotten the love his wife held for Maria and her only son. And now it turns out the hatred had been for nothing, and everything he had accused the father of was wrong too.

“ _SHIELD has been keeping secrets, citizens of the world_ ,” said Tony Stark, because at least that he got right. He was just as dramatic as his old man. He focused back on what he was saying. “ _So many secrets! Secrets that simply don’t belong to them. And a lot of them are pretty bad. I think I should have exposed them fully when they tried to make WMD using the tesseract. Well, better late than never_.”

 _Weapons of mass destruction?_ Thought Hank, exchanging a horrified and worried look with Janet. 

_“Stark Industries Legal and PR team, I’m sure you’ve missed me plenty,_ ” he winked at the camera with a sharp grin. It was nothing like Howard’s dazzling media smiles. It was sharp, and hard, and biting. “ _Without me around life must be so boring. I’m sending you some presents right now. Some information. And don’t worry, media, you’re getting something too. SHIELD’s been keeping secrets that simply don’t belong to them. Cover ups that they felt the right to_ .” Tony tutted. “ _All very shady stuff._ ”

Hank had gone through the SHIELD data dump and meticulously deleted everything that had to do with the Wasp and Ant-Man technologies, so he knew he was more or less clean. That no one could be able to recreate his tech.

Still, Tony’s tone of voice gave him the creeps.

“Man, I never want to get on his bad side,” said Scott, shuddering a little.

Hank privately agreed.

+++

This was not the first time Tony Stark was almost declared dead and he simply turned back up again.

Several times in his early career as CEO he had simply vanished, much to everyone’s discomfort. Then there was Afghanistan, which had left everyone in fear that Obadiah was seriously going to take over again.

The blown up lab had been a close one too, but no one had had time to _really_ be worried, since it happened late at night, and by morning there was already a message for everyone telling them what happened.

Then the Vanko issue, where he didn’t die but almost did. Where he had looked like he was seriously losing his mind for a hot minute, before showing up with the R&D people and announcing that he had created a new element called Badassium (eventually he had agreed to Starkanium).

Then there was the nuke in New York. 

Everyone who was working in the tower that day had watched the footage of their boss disappearing in the sky and then being spat out and falling towards the ground without a hint of stopping.

They hadn’t known if he was alive or not for several hours, until he showed up with the rest of his Avengers team and someone spread the pictures through social media.

And then his home blew up and _fell into the ocean_ , and they had simply waited in bated breath, refusing to even think that this was it.

They were rewarded with Pepper informing them that Tony was alive a while later, just before he resurfaced with her, Colonel Rhodes and the President of the United States in his arms.

And let’s not get started with the whole ‘civil war’ business where he simply vanished after some of his teammates were arrested and didn’t come back for like three days.

Point was, their boss? Had ‘died’ a lot of times. And every time he died he came back with a lot of work for his PR people that almost made them want to strangle him themselves. 

And this time, it wasn’t any different. Very close to the situation with the shutdown of the weapons division but somehow worse. Because this time their boss appeared after one year and seven months on a live stream with a known war criminal and another alien (who were quietly playing with StarkPhones and ???) behind him, and said, “ _For example, hey, remember that nuke that was gonna decimate Manhattan? The WSC made that call - World Security Council, you’ll be receiving their names too, soon enough - and SHIELD pulled the trigger. Which really begs the question, who gave a secret and shady agency nuclear codes access? Who gave them a nuke?_ ”

Emily from Legal let out a groan, the first noise any of them had made in a long time and shook her head. “Dr Stark, why,”

“ _So yeah, media, I think you should definitely look into that. And I do know that I have already let it slip that I’m at my Compound, but the warning I gave the military goes for any stupid journalist who shows up too._ ”

“Why must you call them stupid?” agreed Noel from PR, looking annoyed too.

But everyone was smiling a little, even with the gravity of the information he just dumped out for everyone to see. 

It was simply their boss.

He was back.

+++

Christine Evenhart could only gape at the screen in front of her.

Tony Stark. Alive. After more than a year in space with someone who finally had ‘the bigger stick’ and the man was _still_ alive.

“ _It’s not SHIELD only that I allowed to trample over me. But the media too. Well, since post Afghanistan Tony Stark didn’t work, let’s go back to the basics_ ,” said Tony, and his smile turned very frightening for a second.

Because Christine knew that smile. She had spent months looking at that smile and trying to break into the human behind it. Trying to prove to the world that it was not a mask, that Tony Stark was really that evil.

She wasn’t sure if she was finally given the chance to prove it, and she wasn’t sure she wanted the chance, now, watching the man sitting with two dagger happy aliens who were sitting behind him like they were his security detail. 

“ _Let’s go back to the Merchant of Death,_ ” his smile grew and Christine shivered. “ _If anyone with a camera or any affiliation to any sort of publication, magazine or whatnot steps into my property or in the airways around my property, I_ will _end you. You will receive a full on ban from Stark Industries, I will boycott everything your name has ever been associated with and I will repulsor blast your ass off of my property. I’ll shoot you out of the sky if I have to. In fact, anyone shows up here who does not have an access code to the place will be treated as a threat to my safety. Capisce?_ ”

Something had happened in space. Something horrible and bad enough that had made Tony Stark decide to grow a damn backbone and stop letting the media push him around.

Christine was both terrified and slightly turned on.

+++

“This is so crazy,” said Darcy, shoving popcorn in her mouth like this was a movie and not a live stream.

Normally Jane would have reprimanded her, but honestly? She felt the same. This felt like a dream.

“ _Lastly, this whole bad aliens coming to invade Earth has become rather dull, don’t you think?_ ” continued Tony. When Loki cleared his throat and raised a brow at him, Tony grinned at him. “ _Sh, you know I don’t mean you_ .” He turned forward again. “ _Thanos and his army might be dead, but we all know that there is always a new bad lurking in the distance. Call me paranoid, if you please, but you did that before, after New York and guess what? I was right._ ”

Jane nodded without even thinking about it. They were in a sci-fi movie or tv show now, whether they liked it or not.

“ _So I’m gonna start working on a way to avoid this happening again. I’ll contact some people, and if you have any idea feel free to shoot an email to Stark Industries and I’ll get back to you. We need extraplanetary defence that works before the big bads get on Earth._ ”

“You totally need to email him,” started Darcy, and Jane shushed her.

And then her phone pinged.

Jane looked at the screen with wide eyes, her phone showcasing a new email from: ‘ _You Know Who I Am,_ [ _tonystark@starkindustries.com_ ](mailto:tonystark@starkindustries.com)’.

Darcy punched the air at the look on her friend’s face. “New York here we come!”

+++

“ _Someone, once upon a time, when I first tried to explain that idea, told me that ‘every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die’. Which is one of the most idiotic things anyone has ever said to an ex weapons_ _manufacturer_.”

Shuri had not known him for long while they were hiding there in Wakanda, but she could tell the person Tony Stark was speaking of was Steve Rogers.

Because Tony Stark was alive.

And he was back on Earth.

Honestly, Shuri couldn’t wait to send him an email and see if there was a way to figure out a similar system to Wakanda’s fields to use around the Earth. Reinforced, of course, somehow. She could totally do it if she got to work with a team with other geniuses like Dr Stark and herself.

“ _When I asked him how he planned to fight Thanos when he came, he said ‘together’. I told him we’d lose. I was right. His answer for that was that we’d lose ‘together, too’. I don’t think that that guy was very smart, actually._ ”

Her brother made a face at that, but he didn’t look like he wanted to come to the aid of Steve Rogers. Mother and the Council had given him a big warning for handing over Wakanda’s armies to the colonizer in American spandex. The man had used the Wakandan army as cannon fodder to save his toaster friend - no, Shuri wasn’t bitter that she hadn’t been able to hack the android in such short amount of time - and ended up making the world see that even Wakanda wasn’t invincible.

“ _I say we simply don’t lose and make sure that next time, the big bad doesn’t get through the door. A suit of armour around the world, if you will_ ,” and Shuri nodded. That was such a smart idea, why hadn’t he thought of it after New York?

“ _I probably just dumped a lot on your shoulders, I will have a press conference soon, most likely, to answer any more pressing questions_.

“ _Oh, and before I forget. Iron Man is retiring. Bye bye now!_ ”

T’Challa’s eyebrows rose up his forehead at the rather dramatic revelation, while Shuri cackled.

“Oh brother, he might not be broken, but I want to add him to my collection of old white men.” She shook her head, still giggling. “You should have chosen him as a friend instead of Mr America!”

* * *

“J, what’s the situation?” questioned Tony, pulling out several sets of lasagna from the oven and placing them on the table.

Many people would swear up and down that Tony Stark couldn’t cook, but it was simply not true. He didn’t _like_ cooking, but it was something very calming to do, every now and then.

“I have fried several cameras and escorted three journalists who were lingering around the Compound, the Avengers are about seven minutes from arriving at the gate and I have not hacked into Miss Pott’s or Mr Hogan’s communication.”

Tony pulled off the mitts on his hands with his teeth and blinked. “Uh. I was asking about Vision, Nebula and Loki’s situation, but good to know.”

“They are in the common room, the Vision is explaining to them the concept of ‘movie nights’.”

And wasn’t that simply _adorable._

Tony refused to let his glee at such a domestic scene show as he entered the room. Vision had logged into one of Tony’s Netflix accounts and was showing them the various genres available. Loki was looking vaguely intrigued at the notion while Nebula was nodding like Vision was explaining a mathematical theorem to her.

“Guys,” he called knocking at the open door, “I guess since the military can’t come, they are sending the Avengers after me, which means I have to go talk to them face to face once and for all.” He had found out while learning of what they had done to Vision, that the ex-Vengers had been reinstated - which pissed him off immeasurably, but whatever. Which meant, he also knew that, “And the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor are with them.”

Nebula frowned, while Loki stilled, his face going carefully blank. “The Guardians?”

Tony nodded, getting close enough to play with Loki’s hair, pretending to not have noticed his face. “Yeah. Speaking of, there is a woman with them. With green skin and purple hair?”

Now it was Nebula’s turn to practically freeze over. Vision had imperceptively moved away from them, both curious and worried at their reactions. Nebula’s hand was on one of her blades. “Is this one of your bad attempts at humour?”

“I’m never gonna lie to you, Nebs,” he informed her, using his mind to pull up a projection. A still of the Avenger’s watching his earlier video. He carefully didn’t look at where Rhodey, Stephen and DC were sitting, instead pointing at the corner the Guardians were standing. “Right there. I take it, you know her?”

Nebula’s eyes were impossibly wide, as she watched the screen. “I don’t… how? Thanos said…”

 _Oh._ “Gamora,” he guessed, and she gave a small nod. 

When neither her or Loki offered any further comment, both of them staring at the screen, Tony finally stood back up. “I made lasagna and it’s in the kitchen, but first I have to deal with whoever’s here to storm the castle. Coming?”

He didn’t want them to come. He didn’t want them to see their siblings and decide they wanted to leave with them. Vision to see the witch and running off in the sunset with her.

But he was not going to be Odin and he was not going to be Thanos. He wouldn’t chain them and keep them in his house if there was a chance they wanted something else.

He saved their lives, and he might consider them family now, but he had no rights to them. 

Loki nodded, and in an instant he was wearing his battle clothing, complete with horns and everything, Nebula pulled out her knives from god knows where, and Vision phased back into his usual cape.

Tony blinked and looked down at his Moss Bros suit. “Suddenly, I feel underdressed.” 

The mage rolled his eyes, and grabbed him by the arm. “One could say that this suit is as much as an armour as the other. _And,_ you are wearing the Infinity Stones as if they were a bracelet.”

“Hey, they chose this!” he sniped back, but allowed the touch. Just as he allowed the way Nebula’s shoulder’s kept knocking into his, and if Vision was any closer to his back he could probably phase through him.

He did huff when he opened the main door of the Compound and Mark LX and Mark LXIII were standing. “Seriously?”

“All weapons of the Compounds are trained at the gate, Boss,” informed him FRIDAY from the Mark LXIII’s speakers.

“And yes, Sir, seriously. You are very lucky that it would have taken me too long to summon Veronica,” added Jarvis in a very prim voice.

 _Love you too, J._ He communicated, and he felt what sounded like a huff in his head.

His smile dropped, however once they approached the gate.

The Avengers had the sense of mind to not try to enter or break down his systems. That, or they had tried and the various bazooka’s and other weapons whirring as they approached had dissuaded them.

Loki’s hold tightened on him as they stepped outside the main gate and then stopped several feet away from the other group, his eyes clearly fixed on one person only.

Nebula was very still at his side, eyes checking all of the Avengers one by one, probably deciding on how much of a threat each of them were.

Vision was half hidden behind Tony, which was a feat in itself, considering how many inches he had on him. 

Tony met the nervous stares being levelled at him and gave nothing back, just looking at their leader with bored and cold eyes.

Rogers took a step forward, a hand out and both Iron Man suits lifted their hands and started powering their propulsors. The blond stiffened and stopped, eyeing them nervously before his eyes returning to Tony.

“Tony,” he finally said, voice almost breaking.

 _What an actor,_ scoffed Tony in his mind. Outside he didn’t change his expression. “Rogers,” he answered, very pleased by how cold and detached his voice was.

He could see DC and Strange standing slightly apart from the rest of the Avengers and, unlike them, they weren’t a step away from pulling out their weapons at him. Then again, their weapons were fists of fire and magic so…

“What have you-”

“I remember clearly saying that I don’t want to see anyone on my property who does not have access codes,” he said, interrupting the dear old Captain. Rogers didn’t even try to look disapproving, just glanced worriedly at Tony’s bracelet. Wasn’t that simply great? The Captain was _afraid_ of Tony.

_Good._

“Didn’t I say this? FRI, darling?”

“ _Anyone shows up here who does not have an access code to the place will be treated as a threat to my safety,_ ” played from one of the suits, clear for everyone to hear. 

“Thank you, babygirl,” he raised an eyebrow at the blond still standing in front of him. “So?”

No one replied, but before Tony could bite more heads, he heard the sounds of propulsors in the air. He didn’t even have time to wonder why JARVIS and FRIDAY hadn’t shot them down before a _very_ familiar suit of armour appeared in the air with a web wrapped around his leg and a red and blue spider dangling from him.

Roger’s face blanched as Spider Man let go of the suit and dropped in front of him, the Iron Lad gracefully landing with him. “Iron Lad, Spider Man, you need to -”

Any anger at the thought that Steve would _dare_ to think he would hurt children evaporated as Spider Man and Iron Lad didn’t even bother to stop once they landed, instead all but throwing themselves at Tony.

Peter fell into his arms first, arms around his neck as the mask from the Iron Spider suit disappeared from his face. “Mr Stark!” he cried out and it took _everything_ in Tony not to burst into tears immediately. “I knew it, I knew you were still alive, I knew you were coming back, I just knew it-”

His words quickly mixed with Harley’s as the taller brunet wrapped his arms around Tony’s chest somehow and his mask opened enough that only Tony could see his eyes full of tears. “Don’t you ever disappear like that again, Mechanic! You have no idea what it was like, we thought -”

“ - and I told them, I told them -”

“ - _fucking_ Captain America -”

“- waited just _one_ second -”

“ - repulsor blast your ass -”

“I love you too,” he managed to say, his voice not breaking even as a shin of tears came over his eyes. Harley and Peter both looked at him with even more tears in their eyes and Tony put a hand on each of their faces, one hand cupping one of their cheeks. He smiled even bigger. “I missed you kids.”

“I missed you too, dad,” whispered Peter, dropping his head on Tony’s shoulder and letting out a small sob.

Harley nodded, letting Tony wipe away his tears. “Yeah, dad. Don’t do that again.”

Tony ignored the way his heart stopped and restarted twice at their words, and let out a huff. “Sure, I’ll make sure everyone knows I’m not available to be kidnapped again.”

He heard the sound of the repulsors coming to life again and immediately stepped forward, pulling Peter and Harley behind him and putting back his cold mask once more.

Thor had stopped at the sound of the repulsors, but his eyes were on his brother. “Loki,” he called, voice breaking. 

Loki and Nebula had both taken a step back when Harley and Peter had approached Tony, and seemed to not know what to do.

Tony looked away from Thor and turned his back on the Avengers, ignoring his discomfort and knowing JARVIS and FRIDAY had his back, turning his attention to Loki and Nebula. “Remember what I said yesterday? Whatever you want.”

That seemed all they needed before they slowly and purposefully made their ways towards their siblings. He ignored the urge to pull them back safely where Vision, Peter and Harley were at his back and turned his attention on Rogers.

“As I was saying. What do you want?” he asked once more.

“There is still time,” started the blond, as if the display from Harley and Peter had calmed him down and, what, convinced him that Tony wasn’t a monster? That he was still human? That was so typical of him.

He was still talking, probably saying some random inspiring words that Tony mostly tuned out automatically, when FRIDAY and JARVIS’s voice came into his head.

 _Boss, Loki!_ and _Sir, Mr Friggason!_ , they said at the same time and Tony’s head snapped away from Rogers and towards Loki.

Loki who looked panicked in Thor’s hug, the man’s huge arm around him. One around his shoulders and one _around his neck._ Loki was trying to pull Thor off of him but the huge man was crying and holding even tighter around his brother, unaware that Loki was not joking and was seriously having a panic attack.

Tony’s vision went red.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> maybe its just cause i'm not the biggest fan of cap but am i the only one left with a bad taste in her mouth at prince t'challa overlooking his FEMALE general and handing wakanda's armys over to the juiced up white man from brooklyn? like... did the writers of infinity war see what the hell they were doing
> 
> and the premise of ultron was good, Actually. before the mindstone and wanda messed with them, the idea of ultron was genius
> 
> and again, tony is a Very unreliable narrator, even if steve was being genuine and wanted the best of him, he wouldn't see it that way
> 
> The idea behind tony calling carol danvers DC comes from a fic called ACDC by YunaYamiMouto in which carol calls tony ac because he said his name was anthony collins and he called her DC for danvers carol after they went to a concert together. my take is that as a child when he didn't want to recognised, tony went as Anthony Carbonell - especially during MIT years if he went to places with Rhodey and he didn't want to be swarmed.
> 
> found the fic! https://archiveofourown.org/works/24978409


	12. XII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Tony Stark - the family meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting the epilogue tomorrow my dudes, dudettes and nb pals
> 
> also thor fans? as someone who likes thor the third most in the og avengers line up, I'm sorry 
> 
> tony is still unreliable, he sees the worst in everyone even when they're being sincere :(

**chapter XII**

Not even ten minutes.

Not even ten minutes with them and the ‘Avengers’ had already tried to hurt his family.

 _No more Mr Nice Guy, then,_ decided Tony, taking less than a second before he had both of his suits flying directly towards Thor at the same time and ready to shoot.

The other Avengers let out gasps and shocked noises, but Tony’s attention was on Loki only, and the way he was _still_ trying to get Thor off him. 

Thor’s superior hearing picked up on the repulsor charging very close to where he was standing - but he couldn’t pick up on his own brother having a panic attack directly in his arms?! - and let go of Loki, pushing him aside and narrowly escaping the blast.

“Man of Iron!” boomed Thor, shocked.

But Tony wasn’t paying attention to him, his eyes instead on Loki who was breathing hard with both hands on his own neck. Nebula had moved away from her sister and next to him, her weapons drawn out as she kept him out of the Avenger’s way. Vision moved from behind Tony and flew towards Loki, ignoring the gasps from the other Avengers.

Tony was okay with letting them handle him. Instead he turned his eyes on Thor, who was tense and standing with his own weapon out and trying to get a glimpse at his brother and glaring at Tony at the same time. “How _dare_ you!”

Everyone flinched and jumped at his voice coming out of him and the armours at the same time. Thor narrowed his eyes at him. “How dare _you_! He is my brother!”

Tony almost took a step forward, only stopping because of Peter’s hand on his shoulder. “I don’t _care_ who you are to him, you do _not_ put your hands on someone when they are _clearly_ telling you to stop!”

“You know nothing of my relationship with my brother!” roared Thor, taking a step forward. The cannons and blasters from the two Iron Mans came out at the same time.

Tony had a very large selection of words for Thor, but Loki chose that moment to disappear with Nebula. Thor looked around him wildly, and Vision raised up two placating hands. “He is back inside.”

 _J?_ he asked telepathically.

In response, he was shown footage of Nebula standing close to Loki, while FRIDAY was trying to calm him down in the same manner she did Tony. It did not, however, seem to be working.

“Viz,” he called, “Go in with him. Nebula and FRIDAY are out of their depths.” He instructed, pleased when the synthezoid nodded and moved back inside, ignoring the other Avengers and Maximoff calling after him.

“What do you think-” started Thor again, but this time it was Stephen who spoke.

“He was having a panic attack,” informed him the doctor, looking at Thor with suspicion and contempt at the same time. The blond faltered, looking at him with a frown, and Stephen’s suspicion bloomed into full bewilderment. “You couldn’t tell? He was in _your arms_.”

Thor’s eyes widened, taking in the angry look in Tony’s eyes and probably replaying everything that had just happened. “I… I didn’t,”

“Of course you didn’t,” mocked Tony, a step away from full on snarling. “You never stop and _think._ It’s always, ‘oh, I didn’t mean to’, ‘oh it was an accident’. It’s not an accident if it keeps happening, it’s a _pattern_!”

Thor looked like he had been slapped. “No, I… He is my brother, I love him. I always believed in him -”

“ _I don't know, maybe there's still good in you, but let's be honest, our paths diverged a long time ago_ .” He quoted, watching the man flinch as his own words were thrown back to him. “Yes, he told me. Is this what you call love? What you call trust? He told me what happened to Asgard before he let go, he told me about the Void, about the invasion, about Odin and Evil Dwarves Land. About you sending him to retrieve Surtur’s Crown and how he could have _died_.”

Thor looked devastated by Tony’s words, tears appearing in his eyes, but Tony couldn’t find it within himself to care. “So spare me your ‘feelings’. If he wants to see you, he’ll do it on his own terms and on his own terms alone. If he chooses to not want to speak to you ever again, you will _respect_ that. Or I _will_ kill you.”

He felt Peter tensing behind him, but Harley did not even blink. Thor was looking at the ground even though the other Iron Man suits were still aiming at him. Tony turned to Rogers, more pungent words in his mouth, but then he heard the sound of a car stopping.

He knew the car, of course, and for the first time that afternoon he tensed, as it came to a stop not too far from them and three doors opened at the same time.

Tony would like to say he said something romantic. Like the first thing he noticed was her hair moving in the air, or his ridiculous sunglasses, or his huge smile.

Instead the first thought in his mind was that he could ‘connect’ to the braces in the same way he could to Nebula’s cybernetic arm and the way the legs were _begging_ him to be fixed. 

He would also like to say that his first words to his fiance’ and two best friends was something sappy and kind and gentle. But all the kindness was out of him after Thor’s stunt, and the words that left his mouth were, “Good god, what did you do to the braces? You’re killing them.”

Rhodey’s smile grew even more at that, even though there were tears in his eyes when he stopped a few steps away from Tony.

There were no nervous tells on his, Happy and Pepper’s faces. They weren’t keeping an eye on his new bracelet and wondering if he was dangerous. Tony knew for a fact that Rhodey was there when he sent the video to SHIELD, but looking at him you wouldn’t be able to tell he had just heard/seen his best buddy commit premeditated cold blooded murder.

Tony turned his eyes on Pepper, and feeling the tears he hadn’t shed with Peter and Harley still in his eyes. Pepper’s own smile was tremulous. “Some tears for your long lost boss?”

The situation wasn’t exactly the same, but the intent was clear. 

She was still _his_ Pepper, she was saying. _Are you still my Tony?,_ she was asking.

“Tears of joy,” said Tony, and tears rolled down Pepper’s cheeks as she smiled brightly. “I hate job hunting.”

 _Always. Always her Tony,_ he was answering, taking her hand in his.

“How was the funvee?” asked Rhodey, a hand on his waist.

This time Tony didn’t sob-laugh at his words, and shook his head in mock distaste. “Awful. Next time, I ride with you.”

Rhodey knocked their shoulders together, coming to stand at his right.

Happy didn’t say anything, just clamping his shoulder and giving him a sharp nod before coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with him at his left.

It almost made him tear up. Vision, Nebula and Loki inside. JARVIS and FRIDAY in the suits having his back. Harley and Peter behind him. Rhodey and Happy at each side. Pepper’s hand in his. His family. 

He stood taller and glared at the other Avengers. “Now what’s going to happen is that you’re going to leave _my_ Compound and stay away from _my_ family. You will not come anywhere near me unless I ask. You will not stand in my way. You do _not_ have access to this place, so I really hope for your own sake that I do not see you around.”

 _Sir, Miss Nebula asks if it’s possible to set a line of communication between her and Miss Gamora. Mr Friggason asks the same,_ came JARVIS’ voice, and Tony forced his expression to remain blank. Thor did not deserve any more second chances.

But if Loki wanted to give him one more, Tony wasn’t going to stop him. He would be an hypocrite considering how he had gone against JARVIS, FRIDAY, Nebula _and_ Loki to get Vision back.

“Gamora,” he said, and the green skinned woman stood up straighter. She hadn’t started crying or threatened him when Nebula had gone back inside with Loki, which made her a better older sibling in Tony’s mind. “I have gone ahead and inserted a line to Nebula in your phone. You can use it to contact her and maybe set something up.”

Gamora gave him a small smile and nodded. Tony didn’t hide his sneer as he turned to Thor. “Same for you, Point Break.”

Thor’s eyes turned hopeful immediately, but Tony wasn’t in the mood to entertain him instead he turned to the two standing slightly separated from the rest. 

“Hi, DC. Hey, Stephanie.”

Carol’s serious expression melted into a smirk. “Hey, AC,” she said, while Stephen rolled her eyes.

But they didn’t tense, they didn’t even seem to consider him dangerous. 

Perhaps they hadn’t been with Tony for a while, but they _had_ been his family before life got in the way. And it wasn’t a second chance if they hadn’t squandered the first.

“FRIDAY, create access codes for Carol and Stephen,” he instructed purposefully speaking out loud. “Pepper, Rhodey, Happy and the troublesome duo still have theirs, right?”

“Correct, boss,” came FRIDAY’s reply, out loud too. His shady little AI.

Tony took a step forward, pulling Pepper behind him before letting go of her and making shooing gestures with his hands. “Everyone who was not mentioned, please leave my property now. If you were mentioned you can come in if you want.”

“Sure,” said Rhodey, but didn’t move. Happy caught his eye and took Pepper inside, but the problematic twins stayed where they were, Stephen and Carol coming to stop behind him too instead of going inside.

It filled Tony’s heart with love and a swirl of anger at the same time.

For so long, he had sought after a family, chasing after the Avengers and cleaning up their messes, thinking that they had each other’s backs. But here they were, with everyone except the Guardians and Thor looking ready to attack him at any given time.

Thanos was right about something, after all. They did not deserve him, and if it wasn’t for Peter and Harley standing behind him he would have done something dangerous. Something stupid.

The word anchor came to mind. 

Just like their names and the memories of them was the only thing that had managed to bring him back when he was fully under Thanos’ thrall, their presence was the only thing stopping him from shooting the Avengers in the same way he had shot the scientist who had made the decision to experiment on Vision.

Vengeance was such a tasty thing. He had felt so much better after putting a bullet between Dr Andrew’s eyes. And he would do it again.

 _Killing Steve Rogers would feel just as good_ , said the Soul Stone in his mind. _But it would cause problems. They’d come after you._

And while Tony could protect himself, they would come after his family too.

The only way to keep them 100% safe would be to take over the world which he _could_ do, but was simply too much paperwork.

Wanda took a step forward. “Not without Vision,” she said, head held high and hands turning red.

 _Viz,_ he called, finding the red strands of code easily. _You should make your choice now. You can change it, afterwards but for -_

 _I’m staying with my family,_ came the response, less than a fraction of second after. _I’m staying with you, Tony. If you’ll let me._

Tony didn’t let a hint of emotion on his face as he took two steps forward. “Yes, without Vision,” he informed her, still cold and very pleased to see a hint of shock appearing on her face. He was not afraid of her sickly evil magic anymore. “Leave now, little witch, or be removed.”

“You think I’m scared of you?” she asked taking another step forward and ignoring Rogers trying to pull her back. 

“Yes,” he told her, letting a shark-like smile on his face. Barton took a step back. “I _know_ you’re terrified. I can _feel_ your fear, Maximoff,” He let his voice go lower, this time speaking in Sokovian. “ _You should have killed me in the Sokovian base when you had the chance_ . _Because you know what I’m gonna do now? I’m going to ruin the remaining of your life._ ”

Once upon a time, Tony would have felt bad. Once upon a time, Iron Man would have felt guilty about the fictional part he had in her parent’s death - when _he_ did not sell the weapons, especially not to a civil war ridden country in Eastern Europe.

He would have pretended to understand why Rogers insisted on calling a girl in her mid twenties a kid non ironically and acted like she her joining a Nazi party in the middle of a civil war was an act of _bravery_. 

Now? Now he did not care. Now Maximoff could burn at the stake for all he cared and he would gladly sell matches while she was on the spike.

Her features twisted in a scowl at his words and she let out a scream as she lifted herself up in the air in a mist of red.

 _Boss! Sir!_ shouted FRIDAY and JARVIS, while he heard the others behind him swearing and trying to get their weapons out.

They wouldn’t get there in time, Tony knew. Still, wasn’t it sweet that they didn’t sit back and watch the way Rogers and crew were? At least Gamora and Quill looked a step away from drawing their own weapons, but the other Avengers were still and watching. 

The wall of mist never connected with Tony, despite him making no move of stopping it. He had been curious as to what she was gonna try and do, to be honest.

But Reality had taken it upon herself to throw the power back at Maximoff, and Tony actually snorted when she was hit by her own twisted spell and she fell, screaming.

Rogers rushed to get closer to her, but one blast from Mark LX and the super soldier was blasted backwards.

“My turn, Rogers. Don’t be rude,” he huffed, walking up to the still screaming woman.

“Tony, don’t!” called Romanoff, expression distorted in both anger and fear.

What an odd woman. Went from murdering and assassinating in the name of the KGB to murdering and assassinating in the name of SHIELD and she wanted to act like she had some sort of morals? Like she had cleaned up her ledger? 

And the thought that he would kill anyone in front of Harley and Peter? Tony scoffed, placing his fingers on her neck. He reached in and saw the second the witch realised what was happening. He reached for something rotten and burned inside of her and she let out a gasp, pure horror on her eyes, and _pulled._

The red mist came floating out of her, making everyone gasp in shock, and was immediately absorbed back into the Mind Stone.

“ _No!”_ wailed the woman the second Tony let go of her, clawing at her own throat. “What did you do! My powers! What have you _done_!”

“Took back your stolen powers,” he informed her Tony, coldly. “Gave it back to the mind stone, since you clearly don’t know how to use them.”

“You _bastard_! You murderer!” she shouted, but didn’t attack him, just sobbing hysterically on the ground.

A pathetic sight. Tony really hoped he didn’t get her snot on his shoes.

He looked up at Roger’s who’s jaw was stiff and he looked somehow broken. Hurt. Which was just rude, Tony had done _nothing_ to him.

Yet.

He let his face turn even colder than before, and was gratified by the way Rogers flinched. “Pick up the trash you brought with you, and _leave_ , Rogers. While I still let you.”

Roger’s jaw twitched once more, but Romanoff and Wilson managed to put their hands on him before he could do something idiotic like attack Tony, in broad daylight, in Tony’s own front yard where he already had them at gun point. They shook their heads minutely.

“We’ll be back,” said the blond soldier after a few seconds, and Tony scoffed, turning his back on them.

“No you won’t.”

+++

Five minutes later they were all inside the Compound and the two Marks had left to accompany the Avengers off Tony's front lawn.

Tony had only let go of Peter and Harley once he was inside to check on Loki and Nebula, who tolerated his fussing with minimal complaint - read: Loki pointed a dagger at him when he noticed that there were people with him, which Tony had ignored and continued fussing over him.

The moment he let go of him though, Harley and Peter had wrestled him on the couch, both of them basically plastered on each of his sides, still sniffling slightly.

Pepper’s own eyes were red, but she made no move of pushing the two away from him, instead sitting down next to Stephen on another sofa. The sight made Tony’s eye twitch slightly, before he focused on Carol, Rhodey and Happy on one side and Vision, Nebula and Loki on the other.

“FRIDAY, are they gone?” he asked out loud, making no move of letting go of the two teens - Peter was almost nineteen now, wasn’t he? God, Tony had missed so much. Fuck Thanos.

“Yes, Boss. The Iron Suits have also been returned,” she answered, and a smile appeared on Pepper and Rhodey’s faces.

“Hi, FRIDAY,” greeted his fiance’ - was she still that? he has been gone for a long time - with a smile. “It’s good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back, Boss Lady!”

“And if you think that’s cool,” said Tony smirking. “Say hi, wonder boy.”

“Hello Miss Potts,” greeted JARVIS and Pepper, Rhodey, Happy and Harley all looked up at the ceiling in shock. “Mr Rhodes, Mr Hogan, Mr Keener, it’s nice to see you all again.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t get him back!” said Harley, eyes wide. 

Tony considered for a second whether he trusted them enough to reveal the truth. He, of course, trusted Nebula and Loki with his life. Harley and Peter would not willingly set him up, they were both too loyal, nor would Happy. Pepper and Rhodey, the Afghanistan, Palladium and Vanko situation told him that they would have his back if he told them he didn’t wish anyone else to know. Vision had promised he wouldn’t say a thing. Carol and Stephen existed in a bit of a grey area, and grey areas had the habit of biting him in the ass.

“A lot has happened while I was gone,” he started, and Harley pulled himself closer to Tony once more. 

“We’re willing to listen if you’re willing to tell us,” said Pepper leaning forward and putting a hand on his knee. 

Tony turned to Stephen and Carol. “I would prefer if it didn’t leave the room.”

Carol nodded, solemn. “My lips are sealed. SHIELD has been giving me trust issues lately anyway,” she said and Tony let out a snort.

Stephen shrugged. “The only person I could possibly tell is Wong, and I have no plans of telling him that I’ve even been here,” he inclined his head. “I’ll keep your secret, Stark.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at him. “I’ve had your dick in my mouth, stop calling me Stark.”

It worked to break the slightly tense air. Pepper and Stephen looked up at the sky to give them strength in freaky coordination, Carol and Happy snort laughed, Peter and Harley let out barely strangled “ _Dad_!”, Rhodey and Loki looked disgusted, and Vision and Nebula looked mostly confused.

“I cannot believe you dated this second rate sorcerer,” huffed Loki, shaking his head. “I expected better from you, Anthony.”

Stephen smirked. “Are you still hurt that I kicked your ass?”

“Only because I wasn’t expecting it,” he said, a dagger appeared in his hands, which Vision took from him immediately. 

“As I was saying,” continued Tony, rolling his eyes when Loki pouted at him. “A lot has happened."

He started telling the story, or at least, a vaguely censored and edited version of it. Both Harley and Peter could probably tell that he was omitting certain parts for their sake, but the story was awful enough without him adding exactly _what_ Thanos had done and showed him.

Nebula and Loki both stiffened at certain parts of it, and Tony was pleased to see Vision carefully putting a hand on their shoulders during such instances. He’d have done it himself but the thought of trying to extricate himself from the octopus hold of both Harley and Peter was very painful.

When he spoke about ending up in his own soul after Loki’s memory stunt, Stephen’s eyes widened in surprise. “It’s inside you?”

Tony shrugged. “I don’t know if he’s inside me or I’m inside him or if he’s melted in me like the Reality Stone. When I asked he said, ‘I am you and you are me’.”

“He?” asked Happy, frowning.

Tony raised his wrist. “Yeah. Soul, Mind and Power are ‘he’. Reality, Time and Space go by ‘she’. At least that’s what they said.”

“You can communicate with them?” now it was Carol’s turn to be surprised.

“Sure. They are somehow sentient, according to the Soul Stone, but I could have told you that since the whole Ultron thing. But I don’t know if it’s because I am the soul stone or if it’s because of my technopathy.”

“Technopathy?” questioned Rhodey, eyes wide. 

Tony nodded, and then launched into an explanation of how he was shown his technopathy powers by the Stone and then how his mother had had them sealed in him by the Monkress.

“The Ancient One,” said Stephen, something like recognition on his face. At Tony’s questioning look, he explained. “She was my teacher, the Sorcerer Supreme before me. She has been around for a long time, so it makes sense that she would be able to sense that another Infinity Stone was around.”

“Were you?” wondered Tony.

It was something he had wondered as he wiped away the remaining of Thanos’ ships.

Back on Titan, Stephen had said that ‘it was the only way’, after having seen millions of futures. Which implied that giving Thanos Time was the only way he didn’t win.

“Not exactly,” answered the Sorcerer, shaking his head. “I knew there was something… powerful about you, but I wasn’t sure if it was something you’ve always had or not. But I knew that the only way for half the Universe not to die in a pile of dust was by letting you live. If you died, so did the world.”

Tony slipped back his Merchant of Death mask back on. “I am not a hero,” he informed him, voice sardonic.

Harley and Peter started to protest, but Stephen kept his eyes on him. “Neither am I. I just want to keep my home safe.”

“Being a hero is overrated,” told him Rhodey, with a little shrug. “I prefer the term ‘protector’.”

“And that word fits you like a glove,” added Pepper with a small smile.

“All you’ve done in your life was protect or try to protect people,” agreed Carol, inspecting her nails. “First the American’s troops, then the people affected by your weapons,”

“New York, the president, the Avengers, SHIELD,” continued Happy, listing off.

“And us,” finished Nebula, eyeing him thoughtfully. “You’re not a hero, you’re a protector.”

“Earth’s best defender,” said Vision, imitating Pepper’s smile.

Loki shrugged when he looked at him. “What? They’ve all said it already.”

“I suppose,” managed Tony, blinking in surprise. “This is so weird. You guys are very weird. You know that, right?”

Rhodey batted his eyelashes at him. “Oh dear. Are we making you uncomfortable, Tones? Are you experiencing… feelings?”

“I have a metal non beating heart, don’t you ever say such words to me ever again, honey bear,” threatened Tony, but the mask was slipping away, a warmer smile on his face.

Then he continued his story, Loki interjecting to explain how he almost died and avoiding the understanding in every else’s eyes as they figured out why he had panicked so much when his brother was hugging him. When he said how the stones came to him and between himself, the stones and Nebula they killed Thanos, he was surprised once more at the glint of fierce anger and protectiveness in everyone’s eyes.

“Good,” actually said Peter, eyes still a little teary but mostly angry. “If he wasn’t dead, I would have killed him myself.”

“Get in line,” said Harley, just as darkly, while everyone else in the room nodded. Even Vision and Pepper.

He knew his family loved him - they had been throwing clues at his face the entire day, after all - but it was still disconcerting _how much_ they loved him.

What they would do for him. What they _had_ done for him.

“I don’t regret killing that scientist,” he informed them a few minutes later, once he sent Vision, Peter and Harley to get the food and plates, and made sure FRIDAY was talking to them, thus making them too distracted to listen to his words. “Nor do I regret leaving the others inside while I blew up SHIELD.”

Stephen pursed his lips together, Carol and Rhodey appeared thoughtful. But Happy and Pepper had been working in a weapon manufacturing company for several years now. They might not have seen things happen first hand, but they were around as the Stark legacy grew after the Cold War. They had seen a lot.

“I took the Hippocratic oath to do no harm,” finally said Stephen. “And even when faced with threats, I sometimes hesitate if they look human enough. But I’ve read their files,” he shook his head, looking disgusted, “and I cannot find myself to be sad that the world no longer has such disgusting creatures around.”

“I don’t know if I would have planned a murder,” said Rhodey, pensive. “But if I had walked in and seen them doing that to Viz? He’s your kid.” He snorted. “They wouldn’t have walked out of there alive.”

“So long as you’re not going to exact revenge on the entire world and use the Infinity Stones dangerously, I see and hear nothing,” informed him Carol, crossing her arms around her chest.

“Hot, hot, hot,” called Harley running inside with one batch of lasagna in his hands, but Tony was too surprised to pay attention.

“You’re… what, just going to let me keep them?” he blinked at them. He had already spoken to the stones about what they wanted to do now that he was back on Earth, and knew some of them would prefer to not be used again. To rest once more and keep balance in the world, but _they_ didn’t know that. For all they knew, he wanted to keep the Infinity Stones for himself. “I’m dangerous.”

He was a walking PTSD nut case whose inhibition had been severely depleted after mental torture and psychological manipulation, and was able to both lawfully and unlawfully deal with people he considered threats. He had _just_ threatened the God of Thunder.

“You are,” agreed Stephen. “Probably number one threat in the world if you decided to give in to a life of crime. But you were that two years ago too. You were that when you sent a nuke through a wormhole. You were that in 2008 before you became Iron Man.”

“You’ll always be a threat to those who decide to stand in your way,” agreed Pepper, crossing her legs together and accepting a plate from Vision. “People like SHIELD will always be afraid of you, stones or not.”

“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not good,” quoted Loki, smirking when Tony looked at him in surprise. “What? I was bored in that cell. Your arguments kept me entertained. Thank you, child,” he then added once Peter handed him a plate too.

“I’m not a child, Mr Loki. I’m Peter,” said the teen young man with a huff, but still politely extending his hand. Loki accepted it, shaking it.

Then he let out a snort. “To me everyone in this room is a child. I am over a millennia old.”

Tony shook a finger at him. “I am your father now, Loki, and I will ground you if you don’t behave.”

Loki rolled his eyes, but his cheeks turned a little red, which Tony counted as a win. Pepper raised an eyebrow. “I had made my peace with DUM-E, U, Butterfingers, Harley, Peter, FRIDAY and Vision - just how many children are you bringing into this engagement?”

And Tony lost his breath for a second.

Not for a second had he stopped loving Pepper, and not for a second had he doubted _her_ love for him. He had always known they loved each other, and that she was _it_ for him. At the end of the day, it was always Pepper.

But he hadn’t thought that she would have waited for him too. That she wouldn’t have gone ahead and found someone new, that she wouldn’t have found a new relationship, someone who would be maybe be better for her.

That _he_ might be _it_ for her too.

He blinked rapidly, ignoring the knowing looks from Happy and Rhodey. “JARVIS is back, and Nebula and Loki are the last ones, I promise.” He said finally smiling too. “On the bright side, any of them would make an adorable ring bearer or flower girl.”

Nebula looked intrigued as she ate her portion of lasagna. “What is a flower girl?”

Tony patted the spot next to him, and she came to sit down closer to him, shoulder to shoulder as they glanced down at the one of his StarkPads, Vision moving behind them so he could take a look too.

Harley and Peter found themselves a spot on the floor at his feet, Loki coming to join them; Pepper was sitting at his left, a hand on his knee as she spoke to Stephen; and Carol, Happy and Rhodey were not too far from them, talking to each other and glancing at him every now and then, like they were afraid he’d disappear if they didn’t.

He was home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanda's reasoning is the reasoning of a child and I'll forever stand by it. Like she's not mad about her government who threw the bomb. She's not mad about whoever purchases the bomb, since there was NO AMERICAN INTERVENTION IN SOKOVIA. she's mad about the person who made the bomb??!?
> 
> would she be mad at a car manifacturer if the a car crash happened and her parents died? its ridicolous
> 
> ALSO, i used to love natasha and still today its a 50/50. i think she considered both tony and steve her family, but after the winter soldier she simply liked Steve MORE. she doesn't dislike tony tho, she still loves him
> 
> and epilogue coming tomorrow and the fic will be over! are you ready?


	13. epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this epilogue is up to your satisfaction.
> 
> tony stays being an unreliable narrator

**epilogue**

In a completely expected turn of events, apparently Tony had  _ not  _ missed giving interviews and press conferences.

He had finished telling them about space and about what he was planning to create to help preserve the safety of Earth, but now all of the reporters were shouting and clamouring over each other, as if they couldn’t see the very irritated expression Pepper was spotting not too far from him.

They were being very annoying despite Tony’s warning at the beginning of the event, and Tony didn’t have to take this. 

_ They don’t deserve you _ , had said Thanos, and he was right. Tony had no interest in letting the  _ press  _ of all people piss him or Pepper off.

“Shut up,” he said in the mic, loud and clear, quite pleased when everyone in the room looked up at him with surprise and outrage on their faces. Pepper looked slightly alarmed, and Tony avoided making eye contact. Instead he surveyed the reporters standing in front of him with his brows furrowed. “Good. Now, I am pretty sure I told you, at the beginning of this conference, exactly what we were going to do. Told you I’d call this entire thing off if you started getting too out of control.”

“I do not have the patience of old,” he told them, letting his irritation show. “You will  _ sit  _ and act like civilized people or my head of security,” Happy nodded at him from the corner, “will have everyone who speaks out of turn sent out of the room.”

“What the hell?” said a voice near the back, and Tony let a sharp grin appear on his face.

“And here we go again with the talking out of turn. Happy, if you will?” 

His ex bodyguard marched up to the man who had spoken, and motioned him to stand up, looking very much unlike his nickname. You could have heard a pin drop in the room. The reporter tried to make eye contact with the other people in the room, but no one was looking at him, expression now  _ finally  _ nervous.

Like they were finally realising that Tony meant business and wasn’t just all talk.

He chanced a look at Pepper then, but instead of looking annoyed or worried, his fiance’ smiled at him and showed him a thumbs up. Nice.

He turned back to the audience. “Questions?”

They all politely raised their hands and Tony fought back a mocking smile at that. “Yes?”

“Margaret Vyncoft, Guardian,” said the woman he chose, clearing her throat slightly. “First of all, we are all very happy to see you back alive, Mr Stark. You saved the world once more and we are grateful for you.” She started. Trying to butter him up. Honestly, did they think this was his first rodeo? “You are a hero, no thoughts on that.”

“Is there a question in this?” he interrupted her and she floundered for a second. He was breaking all of their expectations and he couldn’t say he wasn’t having immense fun with that.

“Uh, yes. Loki Odinson-”

“Friggason.”

She blinked. “Pardon?”

Tony glared at her. “His surname is Friggason. Not Odinson.”

“Right,” she said, hastily writing it down. “Loki Friggason, he has been an enemy of Earth since his attempt to invade us back in 2012. He is a known war criminal, and you are the one who defeated his forces. And yet you brought him back with you on Earth.”

She looked at him expectantly, but Tony was not about to make it easier for her and simply stared back.

She looked particularly flustered, and the other journalists looked uncomfortable too. “So, uhm, my question is, why did you bring him back and not put him in prison?”

“That’s two questions,” he pointed out, then shrugged. “Because he is not a danger to Earth and its people.”

“But-”

“I’m still talking.” He said, icily and she visibly bit her tongue. “As I was saying, Loki is not and never has been the bad guy. Skewed morals, sure. Committed murder several times, cannot disagree. But he’s not the bad guy, Thanos has been the bad guy all along. I cannot say anymore than that, but SI’s legal team is preparing his case and I have all the evidence we need if anyone tries to start anything. So lay off Loki.”

The or else was implied.

The journalist nodded, a little pale, and Tony noticed way less hands up this time around.

Apparently press conferences  _ could  _ be fun.

+++

“Mr Stark,” called President Ellis, smiling as Tony strode in the room in a crispy new suit.

Tony gave him a little nod, keeping his expression mostly blank as he greeted him with a perfunctory, “President Ellis.”

The man’s smile wavered for a second, but then he shook himself, pointing Tony to sit down in front of him. Tony accepted the seat and crossed his legs, making it look for all intents and purposes, like  _ he  _ was the one hosting the President.

From the man’s slight tensing, it was clear he had noticed that the power dynamic had shifted immediately, but he did his best to keep his clear discomfort at bay. “We’ve been trying to get in contact with you for a couple of days now,” he said, tone jokey but also chiding. “Appearing like that on the internet after more than a year away… it shocked us immensely. Though we are proud that once more one of our own has saved the world  _ and  _ came back to tell the story.”

“I’m sure,” drawled the brunet, “Especially after you told Rhodey and everyone that no rescue mission for me would take place.”

Ellis’ smile thinned. “Now, Tony,” he said with an awkward chuckle. “You must understand, it was a matter of the security of Earth. We couldn’t risk-”

“Uh-uh. Is that why you, the UN and the US lied to the general public and tried to push the narrative that I’m dead? Rhetorical question,” he said, rolling his eyes at the way the man paled. “What? I was wondering what my dear government was doing to secure my return if anything at all. I didn’t expect you to actually look for me, I’m not an idiot. Now, feeding  _ lies  _ to the media…” he tutted. “I thought America was better than that.”

It was fun watching the man squirm in front of him. He probably had had a different idea of how the meeting would go.

Yeah, Tony could picture what Ellis thought: Tony would come to see him and the man would tell him the US government wanted to give him another medal. Maybe be seen shaking hands with him in public so that the world remembered that their hero was an American citizen. Perhaps even try and corral Tony into uniting the Avengers.

Too bad for him. Tony had his own plans.

“Look, Mr President. I am not going to be seen shaking hands with you. I will not stand in front of the military getting a medal. I will not see ‘sense’ or accept your precious Captain America back into  _ my  _ home. None of that is going to happen.”

“Then why did you come?” finally asked the older man.

Tony smiled a sharp smile at this. Finally they were making headways. “I want a full presidential pardon for Loki Friggason.”

The President stared at him with mouth agape for a couple of seconds. He blinked. “That… I can’t do that!”

It was possible social suicide. It was a 50/50 chance of it ending with the President losing the upcoming election.

“Sure you can,” almost crooned Tony. “It’s called presidential pardon. It’s very easy.”

“I won’t do that!” snapped the older man.

Tony gave a nod. “Very well,” he agreed, and pulled out his phone.

Ellis looked both apprehensive, confused and slightly irritated. “That’s… that’s it?”

Tony looked back up at him with a condescending frown. “Well, it’s not like I can  _ threaten  _ you to do it, is it? If this is all, I’d like to get a move so I can tell Pepper, SI and Rhodey and friends to start preparations for moving to Europe.”

“What?!”

The brunet looked at him like he was slow. “Europe. I’m thinking Germany or the UK might be a nice place to set our main headquarters. Or Italy, I have dual citizenship there-”

“Are you saying you’ll move to Europe if I don’t give Loki a pardon?”

Tony looked at him sharply. “I would never say that,” he said, affecting a chiding tone. “That’d be blackmail! I’m simply trying to think of other places were Loki would be able to fully operate. Where Loki goes, I go. Where I go, SI goes and so do my friends. After all, I didn’t just save the US - I saved the world. I’m sure I’ll find somewhere that will allow Loki in, if only for my sake.” 

He said it all flippantly, but, if possible, Ellis just paled further. 

Tony might be bluffing, but none of his words were wrong. Perhaps not all of his friends would be able to follow him if he left the US, but  _ enough  _ of them would. And SI didn’t  _ need  _ to stay based in the US. But if SI decided to move somewhere else, as the trendsetters that they were, it would only be a matter of time before other tech giants decided to move too.

And the US would simply  _ revolt  _ and demand to know  _ who  _ had sent their hero to live away from them.

Would demand to know why Iron Man had saved the world, killed Thanos, returned home just to have to leave again with half of their heroes and Stark Industries.

And Tony would tell them.

Tony knew this.

Ellis knew this too.

The president simply stared at Tony for a few seconds more, then licked his lips. “Allow me to discuss this with my cabinet.”

“Go ahead,” said Tony, with a shrug. “Pepper has a meeting with the board of directors in like half an hour, so I’m going to tell her if I want to move anyway.” He looked at the President with fake worry. “I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable, I’ll simply call her now and tell her that I’ve decided on Italy-”

“No! I-” he drew a deep sigh. Considered a couple seconds what was better, pardoning the war criminal that SI had gathered a defence for already, or losing the hero. 

Honestly, there wasn’t much thinking. “I’ll do it. I’ll grant him the pardon.”

Tony’s eyes gleamed. “Your kindness knows no bounds, Mr President.”

+++

The e-mail was both expected and very much unexpected.

Tony was sitting in one of the conference rooms - read sprawled on the table - with other various scientists sitting around. Jane Foster was snacking on one side of the room, eyes glittering as she spoke animatedly to - shockingly - Loki.

Nebula was sitting beside Peter and Harley as they spoke to a hologram of the princess of Wakanda about their own ideas on what to do. Vision was engaging Betty Ross, Hope Van Dyne and Rhodey in a conversation.

(what exactly was Betty “squishy sciences” Ross talking about with engineers Tony wasn’t sure, but she had shown up willing to help any way she could after Tony got rid of her father and well, the more scientists the better, right?)

He glanced at the room at large, for a moment more before turning his attention to the e-mail he received.

From Bruce Banner of all people.

_ Good afternoon Tony, _

_ I’m not going to mince words. I hurt you, I know I did. I tried to have one side of you - the genius - without thinking about all the other parts of you that remained. I acted no better than all of those people who only see the billionaire or the playboy in you and forget that you have several doctorates and are - were - an extremely competent CEO. _

_ For that, I apologise. For not being there for you. For fleeing. _

_ I am sorry Tony, for not being the friend you wanted. _

_ I know it’s a long shot, and I know that it won’t magically make our friendship better, but I’d like to join the team working on the planetary defence system. The line up you have already is impressive, and I know you don’t  _ need  _ me. I would still like to join if it’s possible. _

_ I have several ideas and copies of things we discussed while we were working on ULTRON after the Mandarin ordeal, if you want. I don’t even have to come work anywhere near you if you don’t want to see me. _

_ I’m sorry again, Tony. _

_ Hoping this email finds you well and that you accept, _

_ your colleague, _

_ Bruce Banner. _

Tony wasn’t quite sure how he felt after reading the email. 

On one side, him and Bruce have never been friends. His fight or flight response was just  _ flight. _ While he might have liked Tony marginally more than he liked the rest of the Avengers, Tony was hard pressed to say he had no loyal bone in his body. If danger came knocking again, if people turned on Tony as they seemed to enjoy doing, he was sure Bruce wouldn’t stay.

However,  _ Dr Banner  _ was a very intelligent human being. Tony’s newfound dislike for him - even though he disliked him marginally less than he disliked the other members of the Avengers - couldn’t mask the fact that he was  _ good  _ at what he did. He could keep with Tony, which meant he could keep up with everyone else in the room.

He didn’t have to accept him, but he couldn’t deny that  _ Dr Banner  _ would be an asset, even if he disliked Bruce. Plus there was the Hulk, and Tony liked the Hulk.

+++

SHIELD burned to the ground. 

The people, just as Tony had expected were on his side despite his behaviour around the media. And while some _did_ wonder if Tony was perhaps involved with the bombing, they were almost immediately drowned out by the people asking that "for once can we not blame everything on Tony Stark?!".

The most popular theory was that, after Tony's livestream, SHIELD had gotten scared about their secrets being revealed and had burned their entire building and fled.

Just as Tony had predicted the public would.

It was the best thing ever.

+++

“Are you aware you don’t have to do this?” questioned Tony, fixing imaginary dust from Peter’s Iron Man suit.

He couldn’t see his face, but Tony had the distinct feeling that Harley was rolling his eyes at him from behind his Iron suit. “We were never Avengers to begin with,” he pointed out.

“I know,” huffed Tony, moving to eye Rhodey and Carol on the stage. 

He had never expected it, to be honest. He knew that these people -  _ his family  _ \- were on his team 100%. Hell, he had known it even before leaving Thanos, after all.

But he also knew that they were part of the Avengers, and that it was an important job for them. Just because  _ he  _ had retired, it didn’t mean they would have to. He didn’t regard them any less for working with Rogers even though he himself refused to do so.

So when Rhodey had approached him a few days earlier and informed him he was borrowing Pepper to help him have a press conference in which he would formally inform the world that he and Carol were leaving the Avengers, Tony had been more than a little shocked - which had amused Rhodey immensely, considering he had Jarvis take a picture of his gaping expression and put it as his lock screen.

When Tony had mustered the energy to ask  _ why  _ Rhodey had sobered and told him, in no uncertain terms, that he did not trust them and the only reason he had stayed so long was that he thought he might need them when they eventually managed to track Tony and Thanos down.

Since now Tony was back and Thanos was dead, he didn’t need them anymore.

But he had agreed with Tony that if people/aliens ever figured out - and people always figured out - who killed Thanos or who had the Soul Stone, Earth wouldn’t be safe. And because of that, he had decided, with Carol, to create a new superhero team called the ‘Protectors’.

He and Carol had liaised with the UN and the Accord council for it, and now here he stood, a leader in his own merit ready to inform the world of who his team consisted with.

“And now,” was saying Carol, and Tony straightened up, a little giddy. “I present to you the members of the Protectors.”

As one, Stephen, Vision, Harley, Peter, Nebula and Loki walked up the stairs clad in their own ‘superhero outfits’ - except Nebula, who wore her space wear - and were immediately greeted by camera flashes. Peter looked away from the cameras, a little overwhelmed, and Tony used his technopathy to turn off all the flashes from their machines.

Rhodey gave him a look from the stage while the journalists looked around each other in confusion and Tony just sent him a grin from behind the stage.

“As mentioned before,” started Carol again, “both I and Colonel Rhodes, will be co-leading the Protectors. We have already liased and signed our copies of the Accords.”

“I am sure you already know our members, but to avoid any misunderstanding,” continued Rhodey. “Me, War Machine. Major Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel. Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. Loki Friggason. Vision. Nebula. Iron Lad and Spider Man.”

Technically Tony was in the process of stamping the surname Stark on both Nebula and Vision, but the media didn’t need to know that yet.

He mostly zoned out as Rhodey and Carol spoke about the team and what their powers and positions were and opened the floor to questions. He did however hear when his name was suddenly mentioned.

“... headquarter Tony Stark’s former Avengers Compound, does that mean Mr Stark will also be on the team with you?”

Tony would admit it, whoever this reporter was, he had guts. He knew how many wanted to know more about his retirement but were too nervous/scared to ask him.

Rhodey just stared at him. “If you are aware of Mr Stark’s return, then you should also be aware that Iron Man has retired. The Avengers live in a UN Compound, that doesn’t make the UN Avengers now, does it?”

There were a couple of awkward titters at that, but the journalist didn’t sit back down. “But Mr Stark has spoken about the dangers Earth could face now that people are becoming more aware of its existence, especially since Asgard is gone. Surely he could be a reserve Av- Protector too? In case something like Thanos happens again?”

“Again,” said Rhodey, now glaring. “Are you unaware of what retirement means? Mr Stark has laid down his life for the world more than once now. Even soldiers leave the force after a period of serving, and Tony Stark is  _ not  _ a soldier.”

“But,”

“Are you deaf?” finally asked PR nightmare Loki, while PR nightmare Nebula was glaring with a hand on her sword. His eyes were narrowed at the man. “Iron Man has retired. Iron Man is no longer a protection for the world. Because of this, Anthony is working hard with a new team to create some sort of planetary defence and stop aliens with bad intentions from getting in. He is also housing and supporting the Protectors in any way he can. And you want him to do  _ more _ ?

“Who the  _ hell  _ are you? What have  _ you  _ done for the world other than sit on your ass and write your opinion about people who are more than ten times your betters?” His eyes were like slits and the reporter swallowed nervously. “You are  _ nothing  _ in comparison to Anthony. He has already sacrificed himself twice for the safety of the world, how many times did you do that? Why is  _ your  _ life more important than his?”

The reporter had nothing to say, in fact he seemed to shrink under Loki’s angry eyes. Like Loki was scaring him or something, which was just ridiculous. Loki might smite him for thinking it but all Tony wanted to do was coo at how protective he was.

Nebula glared at the rest of the reporters. “Any more questions about how you feel entitled to Tony risking his life and health for a backwater world that up until two years ago condemned him for everything he has ever done?”

Aw, his sweet little murdery daughter. 

No one mentioned his name for the rest of the press conference.

+++

Loki settled down on Tony’s couch with a huff, immediately stealing the snacks in his hands from him.

Tony raised an eyebrow, “Oh please. Take all of it. It’s not like I was  _ eating _ it.”

“Thanks,” said the mage, almost distractedly biting into his food.

Tony eyed him for a moment. Loki wasn’t looking at him, and seemed bored/distracted, but he had chosen to sit very close to Tony. Which meant something wasn’t quite okay.

And there was only one notable thing Loki was doing today. “So, how was your talk?”

Loki didn’t stop eating, still gazing out of one of the glass door. Nebula was out there, sitting next to Gamora, the two of them talking to each other in low tones that were not possible to be heard from inside.

Tony didn’t rush him.

“I’ve missed him,” abruptly said Loki, hand tightening on the bowl he was holding. “I offered my life for his when Thanos came after us. And for a long time, I kept dreaming of him managing, somehow, to come back and saving me. Imagined him killing the titan for all he did to me.

“And I was happy to see him again when we got back. Before he tried to choke me with a hug like oaf he is,” he huffed, but it was not in amusement. Tony still had a mind and half to blow Thor to kingdom to come for that stunt. “He asked me to come to New Asgard with him.”

Tony’s mask shifted back in place even as his heart started beating faster at that - not that it mattered since Loki still wasn’t looking in his direction. “Oh?”

He had, for a second, forgotten that Thor’s planet had blown up and that now his people were living here on Earth. Of course he was going to want his brother, the price and heir to the throne to come live there with him. With his people.

“I said no,” said Loki, turning to look at Tony with a guarded expression.

Tony blinked back at him, in confusion. He said no? “Oh.”

“Asgard… I have feelings about the place. I was born, no, raised there. My mother died there. I’ll always miss our realm,” he let out a sigh. “But not the people. Even as we were making our way towards Earth, I could hear them, you know? Whispering about the ‘Jotun’ who started Ragnarok by putting Surtur’s crown on the Eternal Flame. Nevermind that it was Thor’s plan. Nevermind that it was the only way to stop Hela.” He shook his head. “I can’t go back there. I don’t  _ want  _ to go back there. Sure, Thor, Valkyrie and Heimdall - who I have awakened from his coma - would protect me and defend me. But I don’t want to have to walk around and hearing their whispers about the usurper of the throne and the harbinger of Ragnarok. I just…”

“You don’t have to justify yourself to me,” told him Tony, firmly putting a hand around Loki’s shoulders. The mage allowed himself to be pulled closer to Tony with no resistance. “You don’t want to go to Asgard, you simply don’t go. No one here is going to make you.”

Loki’s self esteem issues were a work in progress, but when he didn’t demand to know ‘what was the price of this kindness’ and actively relaxed a fraction, Tony counted it as a win.

Not that the green eyed man was finished. “And Thor asked if he could join the Protectors.” 

_ HELL NO,  _ shouted Tony in his mind. Outward, he said, “Uh.”

Loki snorted. “I told him no to that too. I told him that you were not comfortable around him and that you might accidentally shoot him on sight if he shows up.”

“True,” agreed Tony, not the least chagrined. 

“But that wasn’t the real reason,” admitted Loki a few moments later. He refused to meet Tony’s eyes as he spoke up next. “I… this is  _ my  _ place. This is  _ my  _ team. Helping others isn’t my idea of a past time, but I like working with James, Carol and even Strange. I don’t want to  _ share  _ with Thor.” He snorted to himself. “This is childish younger sibling behaviour, I know.”

“I wouldn’t know, I’m an only child,” quipped Tony, carding his fingers through Loki’s hair in a rhythmical manner. “But if all this results in you staying and Thor not thinking he can move in here? Please be more childish.”

Loki let out a little laugh, and Tony kept running his fingers through his hair.

+++

By the time Tony walked into the room, flanked by Nebula and Loki, Steve was already sitting down at the small desk, unsurprisingly flanked by Natasha and Bucky Barnes.

The two original Avengers stiffened at Loki’s presence but Tony didn’t pay it any mind, mostly eyeing Barnes and Romanoff with interest.

“Tony,” said the captain standing up and stretching out his hand for Tony to take.

“Rogers,” answered the brunet, not even considering touching him as he settled on his own chair. Steve clenched his jaw at this, but sat down.

He seemed to visibly steel himself before taking a deep breath, but Tony cut him off with great glee. “I’m surprised you didn’t bring Wilson,” he commented, with a raised eyebrow. “Should I be concerned that you brought two assassins with you instead?”

Barnes’ expression had been blank the entire time but he did look furtively at Tony at that. 

“They are not assassins,” protested Steve. “They -”

“I don’t actually care,” firmly interrupted him Tony, waving a hand dismissively.

“You brought an assassin yourself,” pointed out Natasha, arms crossed around her chest. “Should  _ we  _ be concerned?”

“Absolutely,” said Tony, smile all teeth. Steve stiffened in his seat, and Tony fought the urge to roll his eyes, decided he didn’t care enough about Steve’s opinion to bother being respectful, and rolled them anyway. “But if I wanted to kill you, I don’t need to bring either of them. I’d do it myself.”

“So you don’t want to kill us?” Natasha’s tone was joking, but her eyes were trained on his face, trying to read any twitch or flinch.

Tony gave her nothing, tapping his fingers on his chin. “Depends on the day, to be honest.”

“Tony, enough,” tried Steve, in his patented ‘ _ I am Captain America and I am Disappointed In You’ _ voice.

Loki turned into him in an instant, which made both Natasha and Bucky flinch. “Tony, enough,” mimicked the mage, eyes gleaming.

Steve went even stiffer, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. Tony gave Loki a disgusted expression. “Please don’t do that. One is  _ enough _ .” 

“But he makes it so easy,” complained Loki, still wearing Steve’s face.

Nebula glared at him, and he rolled his eyes before turning back into himself.

Natasha took a breath, trying to appear less confrontational. “Tony. You called us here,” she reminded him.

“I did,” agreed the genius, finally focusing on them again. “I’ll be frank. New York is mine. My team lives here, most of my properties are around here, and I’ve gotten used to the East Coast. Therefore, I want you to move to the west coast.”

Three pairs of light colored eyes blinked at him. “What?” finally said Steve, looking very confused.

“I Want,” he pointed to himself. “You,” he pointed at the three of them. “To move,” he made a gesture to represent a flying plane. “To the West Coast. South West, so California and the works. Preferably before the end of the month, I want to talk to Xavier and Murdock and see what we got, cause honestly-”

“What do you mean you want us to move to the West Coast?” almost exploded Steve, looking annoyed and confused. “We are not just gonna move because  _ you  _ want it. You don’t own us!”

Tony raised an eyebrow at Natasha, who was staring in silence with her lips pressed together. “Would you like to break it to him or should I?”

The red head just stared at him until Steve turned his Mighty Frown on her. “Nat?”

She let out a sigh. “Technically, Tony  _ does  _ own us.”

“What?”

“After SHIELD fell, Maria sold the Initiative’s copyrights to him. Your wages, the money to pay off our property damages mostly came from the royalties from the Avengers Initiative. Which belong to Tony. Therefore,” and how pleasing it was to see her annoyance. “The Avengers  _ do  _ belong to him.”

“But we’re working with the UN!”

“No, we left,” explained Natasha, shaking her head. “ _ Tony _ was working with the UN as the remaining Avenger. In layman terms imagine it as Tony sharing custody with the UN, so certain things fell under their purview and others stayed under Tony’s. And now that Tony is back, any money the UN got from our image, every penny… it’s his.”

Steve stared at her, stunned, and even Bucky looked a little apprehensive. Probably thinking of all the mean things Tony would do to him if he did, in fact,  _ own  _ him.

Things didn’t exactly work as clear cut as Natasha had put them, but props for her for trying.

Then Steve jutted out his chin like a capricious child. “Then we’ll simply leave the Avengers again, like before. And when the people ask, we will tell them exactly why.”

Nebula scoffed, running a finger on her swords while Loki grinned. Tony nodded. “Sure, you can do that.” Natasha and Barnes narrowed their eyes at him, and Tony gave them a kind smile that was anything but. “And then when people ask me why I demanded that Captain America moves to sunny California, I’ll put SI on a suit of abuse from the original Avengers against me - you know all the stuff with Steve trying to decapitate me in my lab on the orders of Hydra Barbie for the creation of beloved android Vision, to Thor the dangerous alien grabbing me by the throat despite us being teammates while everyone stood and watched, all the way to the Siberia videos.”

Steve and Barnes froze and Tony’s smile turned even more cutting. “What? Did you really think Zemo’s plan ended with you leaving me for dead? No, his plan ended with superheroes extinct. He filmed everything that happened in that bunker, and was going to post it on the internet. Luckily for you, I am a tech genius and I noticed that, for a deserted bunker, the surveillance was way too good. Unluckily for you, now I have the videos showing  _ exactly  _ what you did.”

“What are you talking about,” demanded Natasha, eyes narrowed between the pale Steve and Barnes and Tony.

Tony ignored her. “Sure, I’d probably get some flack for throwing the first punch, but I have to wonder who the world gonna said with: a liar and vandal who trampled sovereign borders wearing spandex with the US flag and refused to stop no matter what or who was in his way, or the PTSD ridden orphaned man who was doing right by them by trying to apprehend two dangerous enhanced.”

“Your parents,” guessed Natasha growing rigid.

“Got it in one, triple agent,” praised her Tony with a voice that was just a tad mocking. “Though it is interesting that your left hand that you trust with your life didn’t know about this. I wonder, who else didn’t know?” He leant in. “Does Sam Wilson know? Does Sharon? Does Fury?”

Steve’s hand was shaking slightly at his side. “Bucky was innocent. He was mind controlled. Brain washed.”

“I agree with that,” said Tony, much to Steve’s surprise. “There, on the video, his mind was mush. But then, Sergeant Barnes,” he continued, his voice turning into a low purr as he turned his eyes to slightly less blank azure ones. “You weren’t brainwashed in Romania. Yet you chose to hide for two years rather than let a court and your boyfriend clear your name legally. The German police came to get you to hear what you had to say about the bombing and you ran instead of facing justice and allowing the best lawyers in the world - mine - to clear your name.” Barnes’ lips turned downwards. “Your brain wasn’t mush anymore when your Stevie got you out of Berlin. You made the choice to fight in Leipzig.”

“I…” tried Barnes, but Tony wasn’t done.

“You made the choice of bringing yourself, someone who could be triggered at any time, to a fight orchestrated by the very person who, less than 36 hours before, triggered you.” Tony’s smile was soft and cruel. “What were you thinking? Two super soldiers against five Winter Soldiers? When odds were that it could turn into  _ six  _ Winter Soldiers against one super soldier?

“And then,” he continued, implacable, “Then I punched Rogers and you  _ pointed your gun at me. _ To finish the last of the Starks.”

“Tony, stop,” asked Steve, voice shaking.

Barnes wasn’t speaking just staring at him wide eyed. 

Tony blinked. “You weren’t brainwashed any of those times, Sargent. Which makes me think… you’re not a good person, are you?”

“I-”

“And what’s going to happen when the world figures that out? When they see the footage and start think, man, Bucky Barnes. We didn’t have the whole story and he and Steve Rogers lied to us this entire time.”

“I-”

“He and Steve Rogers only care about each other. They are not heroes. They are villains.”

Barnes looked devastated and a small part of him that hadn’t died at the hands of Thanos felt bad. Tony ignored that part of him.

“Bucky don’t listen to him. You  _ are  _ a good person, a hero,”

Natasha ignored the two and focused on Tony, eyes hard belling a certain nervousness behind them. “He’s a POW. The world won’t just forget that. You won’t be able to spin it like you think you can.”

Tony grinned at her and she cringed back. “Do you want to take that risk,  _ moy malen'kiy pauk _ ? My lawyers and the goodwill the people have towards me at the moment against their fickle feelings for  _ you _ ? After I’ve been working to secure threats against Earth? After I’ve assembled very powerful people in my team?”

She pressed her lips together.

Steve was glaring at him, and Barnes seemed to have tears in his eyes.

Tony felt his smile growing. “Tell the UN that two teams are too much for one place. Move to the West Coast. Maybe you’ll even get Pym to help with money and tech so that he feels like he's standing against me. You never know.”

Steve looked at him dispassionately as he stood up. “Brooklyn’s my home, Tony.”

“Locks can be replaced, Rogers,” answered the man, enjoying the way he dropped his gaze at having his own words used against him.

Natasha eyed him with both frustration and fear. “What happened to you, Stark?”

Stark. Not Tony.

She was capable of learning, after all. 

He grinned as Nebula gave them a sarcastic wave and Loki bowed. “You happened.  _ You  _ did this. You reap what you sow, Avengers.”

+++

Tony sat comfortably on his chair, straw in his mouth as he sipped iced tea and sunglasses on his head.

For early may, it was surprisingly warm already, and he couldn’t help but wonder why he had decided  _ not  _ to build a swimming pool outside. It would have been much better, honestly.

“You alright?” asked Pepper, noticing his frown.

She wasn’t in her usual suits, instead wearing a frilly summer dress and trying to tan in the sun. Her skin was still pale - to her dismay - but it made the diamond ring on her finger shine even brighter in the sun.

Everyone was outside that day, even the various science geniuses.

Shuri, Harley and Peter were laying over the Compound’s lawn, heads bent over a small stark pad.

[Tony and T’Challa’s relationship was a little bumpy - what with the King being friendly with Steve and having not checked up on Tony after the fight had ended, and him being wary that the man would steal some of Wakanda’s tech - but Tony’s brats and the princess got along magnificently. She was insanely smart, probably smarter than Tony in particular areas, which intrigued him to the maximum, but she was also willing to learn the things she didn’t understand, same as him. Also, Harley and Peter adored her.]

Vision and Mantis were very busy attempting to create flower crowns not too far from them, while Gamora, Nebula and Carol were chatting and sparring among each other.

[Nebula hadn’t decided whether she wanted to leave or stay. She had never been one to stay in one place for a long time, according to Gamora, but on the other side she seemed particularly unwilling to leave. Gamora had taken in as testament of Tony’s character, and while her team was still in contact with the Avengers too, their relationship was way colder than it was with the Protectors. Tony found it hilarious.]

Quill and Rhodey seemed to be involved in an epic argument over each other’s music taste, with Quill wanting to listen to the top 100 and Rhodey threatening him with blowing up his spaceship if he heard  _ thank u, next  _ one more goddamn time.

[Quill had apologized to Tony about a week after his showdown with Steve. Said he was sorry ‘he was the reason Thanos took him’ which was the most ridiculous thing Tony had heard. Sure, Quill being unable to keep his head straight had directly ended with Tony being captured, but Tony in particular was not going to blame him for being a human being and experiencing emotions. He had told him a little about Siberia - not much, they weren’t  _ friends  _ \- and then pretended not to notice when Quill’s eyes filled with tears at the absolution.]

Stephen and Loki were arguing just as loud about some wacky magic, though Tony was starting to suspect it was some form of flirting he wasn’t familiar with. It was both a hilarious and horrifying thought.

All the stones were gone - because Tony was not an idiot, he wasn’t gonna sit there with every infinity stone and tempt fate. 

[The Time Stone was back with Strange, and the Soul Stone still resided in him. The Mind Stone was thrown into a wormhole in Xandar’s galaxy. The Reality Stone was placed in a deserted planet near Vormir under one of the older races in the Universe, per its request. Similarly, the Power Stone had asked to be thrown in the core of Muspelheim. Thor had requested that the Space Stone be handed back to him, but the Space Stone had refused. She was floating in the Void somewhere, and without the Tesseract, even if someone recognised her, they wouldn’t be able to pick it up with their bare hands.]

All of his family was here with him. Rogers and his team were kilometers away from him. SHIELD was burning and Coulsdon, Fury and many of the higher ups had been arrested on a number of charges. Tony was 87% sure that the man in prison was not actually Nicholas Fury, but as long as the man didn’t try shit with Tony, he didn’t care if he went into hiding.

Maximoff was taken into a prison to answer for her crimes when people found out she no longer had her powers and unshockingly, not one member of the Avengers tried to protect her - because she wasn’t Barnes, and Steve only moved Heaven and Hell for Barnes.

Everything was the way he wanted it.

He smiled at Pepper and took her hand in his. “Couldn’t be better.”

**_fin_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry bruce, you and tony truly were science bros, this is thanos' fault not mine
> 
> I managed to actually finish this fic! First of all I'd like to thank the academy for this opportunity and their support.... lol anyway, just in case y'all wondering I'm thinking of writing a completely revamped mcu au in which loki and tony knew each other before ironman1 and an alternate infinity war fic with a Lot of Crack *winks with both eyes* though i'm not sure when it will be up....
> 
> but anyway thanks for sticking by me this whole time i am immensely grateful uwu


End file.
